The former Government investigated by the new Parliament
The two chambers of Romanias Parliament have agreed to start an investigation regarding the budget adjustments made by the former government in 2016.
Mihai Pelin, 17.01.2017, 14:05
The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies have agreed, in a joint session, to start an investigation regarding the budget adjustments made in 2016 by the technocratic government headed by Dacian Cioloş. Verifications will be made by the budget-finance committees, which will have to present a report in the coming days. They will look into the procedure and data that underlay the passing of budget adjustments in August and November 2016 by the Cioloş government. The move was criticized by the National Liberal Party and the Save Romanian Union, which are against this initiative.
The Liberal vice-president, Cătălin Predoiu: “The National Liberal Party rejects this investigation because its sole motivation is to postpone the moment when the party and the governing coalition have to give explanations about their failure the implement an impossible program.”
In exchange, the Social Democrat leader Liviu Dragnea pointed out that an investigation was needed, because positive budget adjustments were approved in a context in which incomes were dropping every month.
Liviu Dragnea: “We need to see whether the situation was caused by the lack of absorption of European funds or by a poor collection of VAT. We need to give some answers related to tax dodging, a poor control by the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, discrimination in controlling certain companies, and facilities for certain imports.”
Also upon the initiative of Liviu Dragnea, the Chamber of Deputies passed a decision in which they ask the Court of Accounts to undertake a similar investigation.
The former technocrat prime minister Dacian Cioloş replied in a Facebook post to all the accusations regarding budget execution in 2016. In his opinion the investigation asked by Parliament is nothing but a diversion created by those who cannot observe the promises they made in the election campaign. The former premier mentions some of the government’s achievements in 2016 among which a record amount of funds Romania received from the EU, namely 7 billion euros.
Moreover, taking into account the evolution of the Romanian economy in the first 6 months, a positive budget adjustment was justified for the second semester, Dacian Cioloş said. He also added that, through all the measures taken in 2016, the fiscal burden was eased through bigger refunds of paid VAT, and that favorable conditions were created for the new government to receive more EU funds, around 3 billion euros. (translation by L. Simion)
