Construction works for roads such as national road DN 5 Alexandria – Craiova, Caracal’s ring road and national road DN Varfurile-Stei are late because construction companies don’t have enough equipment and personnel, and work at the same time on several construction sites, according to an analysis of the Prime Minister’s control department.
This is the first time that the Prime Minister’s control department analyzes highway and national road projects in Romania.
The department has identified four contracts worth a total of almost 500 million lei (over EUR110 million) where the degree of completion is 17% at best, although the deadline for completion is next year. Companies late on their work include Shapir Structures (Israel), Romstrade (controlled by Nelu Iordache), Euro Construct Trading 98 (Dan Besciu and Sorin Vulpescu) and Construct Mod (Ovidiu Moldovan).
There were also situations where the constructors submitted bids which revealed that the same equipment and the same key personnel would be used for different construction sites during the same period.
This is the case of Romstrade, controlled by Nelu Iordache, which listed the same asphalt mixing machine in two bids, and in fact won contracts for the construction of Caracal’s ring road and to modernize DN 5 Bucharest-Adunatii Copaceni. Similar situations were identified in the case of Tehnostrade (controlled by Dorinel Umbrarescu) and Shapir Structures (Israel). The Prime Minister’s control department looked into 31 contracts for the rehabilitation, modernizing and construction of national roads and highways, where work was late. The analyzed period was January 1 2007- August 31 2012.
Road constructors have in the past few years boosted their turnovers, mainly thanks to winning infrastructure contracts. For instance Spedition UMB, controlled by Dorinel Umbrarescu, which worked on the Bucharest-Ploiesti highway, increased its turnover from EUR45 million in 2007 to almost EUR190 million in 2011. During the same period, the company’s net profit went up from around EUR7 million to EUR38 million, according to Finance Ministry data.
Similarly, Straco Grup, controlled by brothers Alexandru and Traian Horpos, which is working on the Deva-Orastie highway, boosted its turnover from EUR22 million 2007 to EUR88 million in 2011. However, its net profit fell from EUR4.4 million to EUR1 million.
These companies have several ongoing contracts with roads authority CNADNR.
Romstrade leads with 23 contracts, followed by Spedition UMB – 19 contracts, Straco Grup – 20 contracts and Tehnostrade -13 contracts.
The general manager of CNADNR, Mircea Pop, could not be reached to comment on the measures to be taken on late contracts.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)