It took civil servants handling EU funds longer to process the repayment applications because they are busy going over problematic contracts again, says Catalin Vatafu, head of the Authority for Coordination of Structural Instruments (ACIS), providing an explanation for the modest payments made in July.
“Right now, the unfavorable context generated by the audit reports of the European Commission led to a significant increase in the tasks of the management authority, so they probably needed more time to process a part of the repayment applications sent by beneficiaries,” says Vatafu.
President Traian Basescu asked the Government in the second part of last month to no longer send bills to Brussels for repayment, citing suspicions over irregularities with EU-funded projects. Basescu said if the financial auditing by the European Commission found irregularities in the way these projects are conducted, Romania could lose European money.
Although Vatafu blames the low July payments on this decision, he says beneficiaries should not feel any of this turmoil. He also says the authorities will be able to make up for the lack of funds, following the suspension of repayment applications to Brussels, by means of a EUR600 million fund.
“This is a temporary allocation of funds, the management authorities will have this money available, which they will be able to use to make payments to beneficiaries in the near future, right after the repayment process is resumed. The money comes from the budget, the state goes to the market, as usual, and gets the resources,” explains Vatafu.
At present, payments for EU-funded projects were supposed to
amount to EUR1.5 billion at the end of this year. But official data
show payments for EU-funded projects amount to EUR940 million. ACIS
representatives expect a rise in payments in the second part of the
year.
“We know from previous years that second-half payments are twice as
high as first-half ones,” says in turn Stefan Ciobanu, ACIS
manager.
(English version by Daniela Stoican; Editing by Ioana Tudor)