Romanian Tourism Agency Blue Line Battles Tourism Min For Service Payment

"We have sued the Ministry of Commerce, Tourism, SMEs and Liberal Professions, which refuses to pay a RON45,000 debt. In April 2008 we won the trial," Blue Line owner Iulian Andrei told MEDIAFAX.

He added that in May, the Bucharest District 1 Court rendered a final and binding decision against the Ministry.

Last year, the ministry asked tourism operators to present offers for several foreign delegations invited to Romania by the institution. Several agencies submitted offers and the ministry chose a few of them.

For these delegations, generally comprised of foreign journalists, the tourism agencies selected paid for the transportation, lodging and airport transfer, while the Ministry was supposed to return the money later.

The ministry paid some of the money, arguing that no contracts had been concluded for the services performed, thus several agencies, including Blue Line and Paralela 45, sued the institution.

Even if the Blue Line representative obtained the final and binding decision in the company’s favor in court, commerce minister Ovidiu Silaghi told MEDIAFAX that the agency would not receive any money from the institution.

"There are still ways to challenge the sentence. Unless we use all means available for challenge, namely to promote civil action (…), the Anticorruption Department would come and hold me personally accountable for having paid the agencies," Silaghi said.

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