The European Commission will complete its evaluation at the end of September and expects the Transport Ministry to take a number of steps before it will unfreeze payments, the officials said, without going into detail.
The program’s total budget is around EUR5.7 billion, with EUR4.47 billion from the Cohesion Fund and European Regional Development Fund, and EUR1.09 billion from the state budget. Most of the money goes to roads authority CNADNR and railway administrator CFR.
Razvan Cotovelea, state secretary in the Ministry of European Affairs, said Monday that T-SOP is suspended, as is the Sector Operations Program for Human Resource Development (POSDRU) and the program to improve economic competitiveness, with a similar decision expected for a program managed by the Environment Ministry. He pointed out that pressure on the state budget is very high and the state might borrow from banks to continue funding the projects.
The Transport Ministry’s budget was cut in the recent revision by 1.25 billion lei (EUR278.6 million), to EUR13.42 billion, with most cuts in co-financing for EU-funded projects.
At the end of July, Transport Minister Ovidiu Silaghi presented part of the results of an audit on the use of European Union funds, during the 2009-April 2012 period, which revealed the Ministry spent hundreds of millions of euros illegally or on unjustified payments. The European Commission requested financial corrections of EUR141.48 million. (EUR1=RON4.4858)