Prime Minister Florin Citu announced on Friday that he has ordered an investigation by his Control Corps into how Measure 3 - investment grants for SMEs is applied, underscoring that he wants the money to reach the companies that have the "greatest need", according to AGERPRES.
"After a discussion with the Economy Minister on Measure 3 (grants for SMEs), I decided that it is imperative that an investigation be carried out by the Prime Minister's Control Corps. I want to make sure that this money reaches the companies that need it the most, according to the pre-established objective criteria. In my mandate, public money is used efficiently and transparently," Citu wrote on Facebook.
Economy Minister Claudiu Nasui signaled on Friday that Measure 3 of state aid for SMEs "does not reach the purpose" for which it was created, given that over half of the companies applied for the acquisition of real estate, thus that the Government is looking for solutions to rectify the situation.
"Out of the 27,736 applicants, we have 8,275 who applied for real estate. If we refer only to the financed projects, with the current budget there are only 3,580 financed companies. Of these, 1,807 finance real estate. Practically, more than half of the eligible projects are for real estate. This was not the purpose of the measure. It was meant to be a measure of aid during the COVID period and ends up financing the purchase of apartments," Nasui explained in a Facebook post.