RSS
Prime Minister's Control Body started a verification at Romsilva
The Prime Minister's Control Body started a verification at National Forestry Public Corporation - Romsilva, the Government announces in a release issued on Thursday.
According to the cited source, "the control's objectives are: verifying the compliance with legal provisions the organization and functioning of the entity under control, verifying the compliance with legal provisions and internal regulations regarding the meeting of specific attributions, and other issues relevant to the control action."
The period under control is January 2014 up to now, the Government mentions.
The forestry state property fund managed by Romsilva decreased last year by 62,356 ha, so that on December 31, 2015 it amounted to 3.15 million ha, Romsilva's CEO Adam Craciunescu announced on Thursday.
"With the approval of the Forest Code, the former ICAS Bucharest [the Marin Dracea National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry] has become an independent unit and manages 48,000 ha, and the difference represents the areas repossessed following final and irrevocable decisions in court," said Craciunescu.
Romsilva ended 2015 with a turnover of 1.588 billion lei, by 15.5pct higher than estimated, with gross profit having exceeded 220 million lei.
According to the cited source, the investments made in 2015 from Romsilva's own funds amounted to 73.9 million lei.
New legislation is the only solution to restart Romania's timber market, says National Forestry Company Romsilva manager Adam Craciunescu.
"In my opinion, the solution is a new regulation or a change of the Forestry Act through an emergency ordinance [of the Government]. We have to convene again a working group with the Competition Council and the Environment Ministry, to agree, because each has noted some issues of the timber market. We are waiting for the time to set a new benchmark level, allowing us to cut the prices, but this is possible only once a year, according to a Government decision - before the main auction held in November -December," Craciunescu told a press conference on Thursday.
Forestry is practically stalled because of Romsilva's decision to raise the benchmark auction prices by 300 percent, say the industry representatives - the Association of Furniture Producers of Romania, the Fordaq Foresters Community, the Nostra Silva Federation of Forest and Pastureland Owners, the Bucovina and Valea Somesului forestry associations, the Muresul Association of Foresters and Furniture Producers, and the Wood Industry Unions Federation.
Thousands of protesters from the forest industry gathered in front of the Government headquarters on Tuesday, asking for solutions to resume activity and to settle auction issues with Romsilva. "Because of Romsilva's measures, Romania has the highest timber purchase prices in Europe, and the competitiveness of the wood processing industry is seriously affected. Over 130,000 employees in this industry and their families see their daily bread jeopardized," the protest organizers claimed.
"This stalemate is not Romsilva's fault. The company markets a natural resource publicly owned by the state, at prices based on calculation methodology and on a Government decision," Craciunescu asserted.