Interim Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan announced that he would present an account of his government's performance during his tenure as head of government at a press conference on Monday.
On Sunday, he was asked on B1 TV private television broadcaster about the fact that the Social Democratic Party (PSD), which is preparing to join the new government, had already called for an assessment of the Bolojan government's performance.
'Tomorrow, there will be a press conference at which I will give an account of the government's activity from the time I took office last year until now, and we will make the figures public. One thing is absolutely clear: when you make promises that cannot be fulfilled, instead of acting responsibly and refraining from doing so, PSD ministers will very likely resort to the rhetoric of a disastrous inheritance' to explain why they cannot meet the expectations they have created. We know this; it is not a problem, but these are the realities.
'When you have to operate within certain budget allocations, consider, for example, the Ministry of Transport, which had approximately 5 billion euros allocated in European funds through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), while contracts worth more than 19 billion euros were signed and work was started on all of them. This means that action was taken in the knowledge that the available funding would not be sufficient.
'One of our major problems is the management of investment programmes: too many projects are under way without funding, which is a serious issue. One of my priorities during this period has been to ensure the highest possible level of investment while also curbing the launch of projects for which funding is not available,' Ilie Bolojan replied.
The interim prime minister cited as examples projects run by the National Investment Company (CNI) and the Ministry of Transport that had been under way for years without being completed.
'Construction sites are making no progress, either because they lack funding, because contractors are incapable of delivering, or because all sorts of appeals have been lodged. Whatever the reason, the result is deteriorating works, rising costs, since each year brings the possibility of price indexation and so on, losses for the state budget because the works end up costing more, losses for local authorities because they also have to provide co-financing, and a public perception that citizens are being treated with contempt when it comes to the pace of public works.
'Therefore, one priority is to focus on strategic, large-scale projects. This year, our main concern has been the projects under the PNRR,' Bolojan said.
The interim prime minister listed the Moldova Motorway among the projects given priority, saying it would be operational as far as Pascani by the spring of next year at the latest.
'That is what we must continue to do. In some areas, work has proceeded on the assumption that funding would be available. That was a calculation made by the ministries concerned, perhaps incorrectly, or by the contractors themselves. The issue is that work should only be carried out within the limits of the financial resources available. The rest is just talk.
'However, there is no package of outstanding payments that exceeds, let us say, the scope of what can be covered through a budget revision. There are no such problems. There are outstanding payments, but the payment flow can be covered through the budget revisions that will be made. As I said, however, launching projects without secured funding is irresponsible, because it creates problems,' Ilie Bolojan added.
