General mayor of the Capital Nicusor Dan told Wednesday evening private broadcaster Digi24, that a "technical obstacle" is standing in the way of closing of municipal companies, namely the fact that there is no money for settling the debts that these companies register, according to AGERPRES.
The mayor says he found "a current debt of 2.5 billion lei, money that theoretically we should pay on the spot."
Asked what generated the debt, the mayor listed the causes that led to its creation and also explained the reason why municipal companies cannot be closed immediately.
"From companies, from festivals, from an unreasonable sizing of the budget, from forecasting revenues that were known cannot be made - that's how this debt was reached. Having no money to be able to pay off all debts ... very simplistic: to close a company, you have to pay its debts, put its people aside, see what the inventory items are, and that is when it's over. We don't have the cash flow right now so we can pay their debts off and to be able to rein them to zero. This is the technical obstacle that we are facing so as to close [the companies]," stated Nicusor Dan.
He added that when the municipal companies were set up, "there was a political goal, to pay very well some party activists".
"The problem of companies must be looked upon globally, they were set up to provide some public services cheaper. For example, public lighting or the care of trees in parks. The problem is (...) how much we, as municipality, were paying before these companies and how much we have been paying after they have been set up? And we see that in many sectors we pay 30%, 40%, 50% more. That is the reason why they must be abolished," said Nicusor Dan.