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Senate Chair Anca Dragu on Friday tabled in Parliament a bill that sets clear criteria for allocating money from the Government Reserve Fund and a transparent mechanism, establishing its cap at 0.5% of the total government expenditures.
"We have noticed how the Government Reserve Fund has become a political instrument with which the prime minister allocates money at his discretion to local administration. In the last seven years, the amounts distributed to the local administration from the Reserve Fund have steadily increased, amounting to billions of lei wasted without being used for national emergencies, without knowing where it went. Public money must be distributed according to clear and transparent criteria, and in a responsible manner. A prime minister cannot use public money to buy political support," Anca Dragu is quoted as saying in a press statement released by the Save Romania Union - Freedom, Unity and Solidarity Party (USR PLUS) alliance on Friday.
According to Dragu, the law says that the Reserve Fund available to the government may finance urgent or unforeseen expenses incurred during the budget year, but the practice of recent years has shown that "this money is used at will, on a discretionary basis, out of step with the law in force, only to satisfy the mayors and county council chairs loyal to the political leader of the moment."
"This is what happened during Dragnea's government; it also happened the other day, when, also on the Dragnea model, ousted Prime Minister Florin Citu distributed over 1 billion lei to the mayors and county council chairs who helped him win the internal battle inside the National Liberal Party (PNL), and to the Social Democratic Party (PSD) barons who can help him lead a minority government. USR PLUS aims, by the bill submitted today, to prevent such situations by introducing clear and transparent criteria for the allocation of money from the Reserve Fund."
The bill provides for the repeal of Article 29 in Government Emergency Ordinance 83/2014 on the remuneration of staff paid from public funds in 2015, as well as other measures in the field of public expenditures.
The bill also introduces the obligation to carry out a public consultation process and to justify the urgent and unforeseen nature of the expenditures financed from the Reserve Fund.
Under the bill, the Reserve Fund cannot exceed 0.5% of the total government outlays, which compels the government to come before the lawmakers to present a detailed report on the manner and level of use of the Reserve Fund.
On Wednesday, the government decided to allocate over one billion lei from the Reserve Fund for local projects, with part of the amount to cover the costs of social assistance and child protection services paid by county councils.
On Thursday, USR said that Prime Minister Florin Citu allocated one billion lei from the Reserve Fund to the mayors of PNL and UMDR [Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania], and also to PSD mayors from whom he hopes to get help for a minority government.
PSD national leader Marcel Ciolacu said the party will file a criminal complaint against Prime Minister Florin Citu for allocating one billion lei from the Reserve Fund in what he terms bribes to PNL mayors, Agerpres informs.
