The large number of lawyers involved and the complicated selection proceedings were the result both of commitments by previous governments and of the Communications Ministry’s lack of funds, according to data provided by the parties involved.
As far as the Government and Greek group OTE are concerned, which agreed on July 1, 2011 on the steps to be taken to list Romtelecom, the company they jointly own, the advisor is the Stoica & Asociatii law firm. The official announcement was made on Friday, August 5, by Romtelecom, which managed the selection process on behalf of the shareholders.
But why was Radu Rizoiu – senior partner of Stoica & Asociatii- involved in negotiations with the Romania government and OTE, which took place on July 1? Did the lawyers of the company of democratic-liberal Valeriu Stoica work for the ministry headed by democratic-liberal Valerian Vreme before they had a contract to advise the Government on Romtelecom listing?
Radu Rizoiu’s participation was possible because the two parties had a contract at the time, Valerian Vreme and Valeriu Stoica told ZF.
Three days ahead of Romtelecom’s official announcement on the selection of Stoica & Asociatii, one of the largest law firms on the market – Bostina & Asociatii, with EUR15.7 million in turnover in 2010, announced the selection proceedings were not needed because the Government already had an advisor on this matter, since back in 2008.
Both parties are right, according to Communications Minister
Valerian Vreme.
“We did not know about this contract until a month ago,” Vreme
explained, adding the ministry would not terminate the contract, in
fact it will use the expertise of the Bostina lawyers in the
listing process. “The contract with Bostina is reassurance that no
mistakes are made. We will use them in the listing process.”
(English version by Daniela Stoican; Editing by Ioana Tudor)