Minister Teodorovici confirms opt-out of WB deal on Comarnic-Brasov highway
Romanian Finance Minister, Eugen Teodorovici, has confirmed that Government had dropped out the deal with the World Bank (WB) for the completion of the Comarnic-Brasov highway section, arguing that the source of financing in a project is not relevant.
“In a project, it is not important the source of financing, it’s important that you carry out that project, and the Government, through the Finance Ministry, chooses the easiest, cheapest and most useful source of financing. We had a discussion with the representatives of the Transports Ministry and they found a quicker way to make things happen on the Comarnic-Brasov section,” Teodorovici said in Constanta on Saturday.
The minister explained that the Finance Ministry is the only one that must discuss with a financier. “There is no scandal. The bank has its own rules as financier, that may be not the same with the ones that a public-private partnership implies,” Teodorovici said.
After Transports minister Lucian Sova had announced the government is dropping out the partnership with the World Bank for this project, the World Bank told the local media that “it had not received any official notification from the Ministry of Transports on the partnership for the Ploiesti-Brasov motorway.”
The deal with the WB for the Ploiesti-Brasov highway, which also included the Comarnic-Ploiesti section, was inked in October last year by the Finance Minister back then, Ionut Misa, when Mihai Tudose was the head of the Government.