Opposition criticizes division of the reserve fund

The Social Democrat Union ( USL) announced that it will file a penal complaint against the Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, will be published when the Annex to the government decision regarding the money allocated to municipalities.

Over 648 million lei will be divided to more than 1,600 municipalities, whereas, according to the attached list, the huge amounts are given to the county councils and town halls led by representatives of the ruling parties.

The prime minister Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu has convinced the coalition that public administration funds are to be allocated on the basis of two principles, namely for the on-going European projects, that require co-financing and also payment arrears.

Prime minister’s decision came after a coalition meeting where the ruling parties leaders said they would come to vote in Parliament only if the government decides certain budgetary allocations.

Governmental sources said then the Prime Minister was bothered by the attitude of Liberal Democrat Party leaders, which would have compelled voting some laws in Parliament for budgetary provision to certain electoral districts.

Democrat Liberals say, however, that the division of money is justified.

General Secretary of Liberal Democrat Party( PDL), Ioan Oltean said that "those municipalities which had special problems in the debt received some jobs that have remained gaps and the issues that need to be taken into account. It seems to me that it was a reasonable division ".

The opposition immediately accused the Government that has allocated money only to the mayors of government parties in.

Social Democrat leader Victor Ponta reproached to Prime Minister that he yielded to the blackmail of the ruling parties local barons .

"Mr Ungureanu was blackmailed by the ruling parties local barons and gave almost 700 million lei. It is still not clear where he gave it because he hadn't it in the reserve fund." said Victor Ponta.

"It means that he has cut from education, health and investments, reason for, once the government decision is published in Monitorul Oficial, against the prime minister and ministers who will countersign we are going to submit penal complaints for abuse and violation of several laws, public financial management law, local fiscal responsibility law" added the Social Democratic Party leader.

The government spokesman, Dan Suciu, stated last week that the allocation of this money does not account for political view of the local mayor, but for urgent needs of city halls.

"We will have a support with this reserve fund for payment of outstanding debts, arrears and works being in debt payment, just to have a functional character at administrative units level, at municipalities level " believes Dan Suciu.

Government amended several laws and introduced derogations to current rules in order to be entitled to allocate money to city halls, throughout this year suspending the rule that local authorities can’t receive money from the reserve fund unless they reduced their outstanding payments.

Current legislation provides that Government may grant money from the reserve fund only to town halls that require less money than debts they had in 2011.

By an emergency decree, the government decided this rule to be suspended until 31 December 2012, which allows new similar funds allocations throughout the year.

Translated by Ioana Vioreanu
MTTLC, Bucharest University