The ministry said the building required an investment of 40 million lei (EUR9 million) but only RON10 million was assigned to the project from the ministry’s budget. Moreover, after a budget revision, the allocation was reduced to just RON7 million.
Constanta mayor Radu Mazare had called on the ministry to transfer the building back under the city hall’s authority because it had failed to start rehabilitation works on it, although it had been administering it for a year.
Mazare said he plans to hold an international auction for the monument’s rehabilitation.
The Casino, an architectural landmark of the city of Constanta, built in the first decade of the twentieth century, was transferred under the authority of the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism on August 31, 2011, so it could be rehabilitated and then returned under the administration of local authorities. Rehabilitation was supposed to start this year and not take more than three years.
(EUR1=RON4.4940)