Over 450 million euros lost, blocked investments and poor management of key flood defence infrastructure projects are the main conclusions of an audit carried out by the Control Body of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests (MMAP) at the National Administration "Apele Romane" (Romanian Waters) (ANAR).
According to a MMAP release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday, of an initial allocation of 557.8 million euros from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) for seven investment projects, Romanian Waters lost over 80 percent of the funds following renegotiations with the European Commission.
One of the most important projects, the one regarding the modernization of the critical flood defence infrastructure - dams and dykes - with an initial value of 340 million euro - has been cut by 90 percent. Of the 13 dams, 13 polders and over 400 kilometers of dykes planned, only one dam and one polder remain funded, worth approximately 33 million euro, both in Bihor county.
The control also found significant delays in procurement procedures, repeatedly redone technical documentation, lack of coordination between structures and weak managerial accountability.
Moreover, the former director general and several basin administration directors signed their own appointment decisions to project implementation teams, granting themselves salary increases ranging from 10 to 50 percent.
In total, over 500 employees received bonuses for managing European funds, despite most projects being lost.
"The results are clear: hundreds of millions of euros lost, failed investments and hundreds of employees rewarded without delivering results. We cannot talk about performance as long as the projects do not exist in reality. The ANAR reform will mean efficiency and professionalism," Environment Minister Diana Buzoianu said, as quoted in the release.
The control at the ANAR was ordered by Diana Buzoianu following complaints about administrative blockages and the massive loss of European funding.
"This control was necessary to understand how a vital institution ended up losing huge funds meant to protect entire communities from floods. We are talking about money that could have been turned into dams, dykes and concrete works, but was lost due to leadership failing to build the necessary capacity on the ground to manage these projects. We will take measures to ensure this does not happen again in the future," she said.
Following the report, the Environment Ministry proposed a complete reorganization of the structures managing the projects under the PNRR. The PNRR department from the central structure will be disbanded and the personnel will be redistributed to regional units, where there is a real need of expertise.
Of the more than 500 employees currently receiving bonuses for project activities, no more than 100 will remain involved in the implementation of active PNRR projects confirmed by the European Commission.
Moreover, the Ministry has also requested the ANAR to recover unjustified payments made to staff who did not carry out real implementation activities and to identify alternative funding sources for critical flood protection works that remain uncovered. In parallel, a strict monitoring mechanism will be introduced, with a reports on the progress of investments, expenditures and committed deadlines at every six months.
"European money must be transformed into visible results, not in positions and bonuses. In the next period, the Romanian Waters will undergo a real reconstruction process, in which competence and transparency will be the only working criteria. People of good faith and with experience within the institution, who have been ignored in the past years, will form the foundation from which this reforms starts," Diana Buzoianu underscored.
Comentează