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Investors accuse mayor Firea’s companies of distorting the competitive environment
Coalitia pentru Dezvoltarea Romaniei (CDR) asks the Bucharest City Hall to respect the principles of free competition, the principle of transparency and legal provisions in the award of public service contracts to municipal companies set up last year, as a press release informs quoted by romaniajournal.ro.
“Looking at how the 22 companies set up in 2017 under the City Hall umbrella operated, we have found that there is a deep gap between the principles of action and the practice of public administration in Bucharest in the awarding of public service contracts, on the one hand, the legal norms in force and the free market mechanisms, on the other. We also worry about the lack of transparency that characterizes the entire activity of municipal companies so far,” (CDR) shows.
Coalitia pentru Dezvoltarea Romaniei is a private, non-political initiative, gathering the most representative organizations for the business environment in Romania: 25 business associations, 19 organizations as associated members.
Information available so far indicates that most purchases were made by direct award, sometimes in record time, which excludes from the outset any serious analysis of possible deals.
According to CDR, the lack of transparency that characterizes the activity of the 22 companies violates any democratic principle under which the public administrations of the European Union are operating today.
“In this regard, we ask the City Hall to provide as soon as possible complete information about the structure, management, headquarters, purchases and projects that each of these companies carries out in part,” the business environment representatives said.
Discretionary spending of public money, both through the direct attributions, as well as through financial resources mobilized for the maintenance of the City Hall’s holding (management’ and boards’ salaries, management and bonuses, headquarters, endowments, etc.) jeopardizes a budget that is already very burdened and excludes any efficiency criterion, foreign and Romanian investors point out.