L Payments of 2.6 million lei, a harsh attack on the local budget
L Făgăraş City Hall ordered by court to return 2 million lei to Braşov County Council, money received in 2013 by former management
L The agreements between the liberal leaderships of Braşov County Council and Făgăraş City Hall have cut the budget for party interests
L Recon & Doje will receive 600,000 lei from the local budget for winning the lawsuit opened in 2015
Over 2.6 million lei disappear from the local budget of Făgăraş and fill the accounts of the units that won the court cases before the lawyers paid by the Făgăraş City Hall to represent its interests. The court rulings that have remained final reduce the financial possibilities of the municipality by amounts of money that could have covered important investments for the community. The reorganization of the Făgăraş Municipal Hospital alone by moving the Pediatrics Department would have cost 1.8 million lei and could have been done by now. Not to mention the ring road or the repairs of the street that runs through Făgăraş, the amount covering a good part of the costs of these investments. The payments that the Făgăraş City Hall must make as it is obliged to implement court decisions are nothing more than sequelae of the past mandate when the local budget was shepherded through incompetence and neglect. The municipality and county were then led by PNL representatives, Aristotel Câncescu at the Braşov City Council and Sorin Mănduc and Cătălin Cârje at the Făgăraş City Hall.
Lost processes on the assembly line
The Municipality of Făgăraş will pay over two million lei to the Braşov County Council, given that the lawyers hired and paid with heavy money by the municipality lost the lawsuits in which Făgăraş was involved. This is the amount of 459,000 lei received in 2013 by the Municipality of Făgăraş from the broken quotas and which was illegally distributed to it by the county forum, as the court found. It will also return the amount of 730,000 lei to the Braşov County Council for projects related to children with disabilities, the amount also attracting interest in the amount of 860,000 lei. A similar situation was registered in the case of the company Recon&Doje, which led the city and its citizens to despair for 3 years through poorly organized construction sites throughout the city. And in the accounts of this company, the Făgăraş City Hall must transfer the amount of 109,305.08 lei and the legal interest in the amount of 490,000 lei, following the loss of a lawsuit opened by the said company against CL Făgăraş and the Făgăraş Municipality. „In addition to the fact that at the beginning of the year they withheld one million lei from the local budget from the broken down quotas, this year we also had to pay money according to court decisions to companies such as Recon and Doje plus penalties or to the Brașov County Court, money that was illegally assigned and spent to the same extent. The court obliges us to return the money with penalties, amounts that amount to over two million lei. This amount must be returned to the Brașov County Court, for this reason we have made and are making savings in order not to affect our activity in the Făgăraş Municipality,” said Mayor Gheorghe Sucaciu.
Decisions issued by Braşov County Court to satisfy political interests
After a court case opened in 2015 through file no. 3905/62/2015 registered at the Braşov Court and in which the Municipality of Făgăraş was summoned as a guarantee, the defense paid with heavy money from the local budget did not even show up at the trial to bring evidence that would exonerate Făgăraş. This is how it is that today, the City Hall of Făgăraş loses 459,000 lei, an amount that also attracts penalties, instead of using the money for projects useful to the local community. In fact, we are talking about the amounts of money distributed from the Braşov City Council budget to UAT Râşnov, 1,087,000 lei, and UAT Codlea, 872,000 lei, through HCJ no. 38/11 March 2013. However, later the total amount of 1,779,000 lei was redistributed by the Braşov County Council to other ATUs in the county through a new decision, HCJ 323 issued on 20 June 2013. It was a habit at the Braşov County Council level to „play” with public money and direct it based on political criteria and less for viable and useful projects for local communities. Based on HCJ Braşov 323, the money was redistributed to the Municipality of Făgăraş (459,000 lei), the city of Predeal (100,000 lei), the commune of Bod (150,000 lei), the commune of Comăna (250,000 lei), the commune of Dumbrăviţa (150,000 lei), the commune of Feldioara (450,000 lei), the commune of Măieruş (50,000 lei), the commune of Sâmpetru (100,000 lei), Şercaia commune (150,000 lei) and Teliu commune (100,000 lei). Regarding the Făgăraş City Hall, it is not known what the amount received in redistribution through HCJ 323 was used for.
UAT blacklist
The two city halls, Râşnov and Codlea, did not leave things to chance and appealed to the Braşov Tribunal to benefit from the provisions of HCJ 38/2013 and the money allocated from the quotas broken down in the initial phase. This is how the Braşov CJ was called to the stand together with the Braşov County Directorate of Public Finances to justify the decisions taken. In its defense, the Braşov CJ called as a guarantee the UATs that benefited from DCJ 323, including the Făgăraş Municipality. The trial lasted over 2 years, and by civil sentence no. 514/CA dated May 20, 2016, the court obliges the Braşov County Court to enforce HCJ 38, in the sense of transferring the amount of 1,087,000 lei to the local budget of the city of Râşnov and the amount of 872,000 lei to the local budget of the municipality of Codlea, as well as the related interests. The UATs in question are also obliged to pay the county forum the amounts received in 2013 and the legal interests related to them. From the Făgăraş Land, Făgăraş is on the black list with the amount of 459,000 lei, Comăna with the amount of 250,000 lei, and Şercaia with the amount of 150,000 lei.
Another lost lawsuit, more budget money
Another lawsuit involving the Municipality of Făgăraş during the same period concerns the financing of projects targeting children with disabilities. In this case, the Municipality of Făgăraş is required to pay the county court the amount of 730,000 lei and interest in the amount of 860,000 lei. „A payment plan for the interest has been drawn up, but the amounts must be paid. I have ordered an audit of the payments made for the municipality’s defense expenses in the lawsuits over the last 3 years,” explained the current mayor of Făgăraş. As shown by the documentation submitted to the files of the two cases lost by the Municipality of Făgăraş, the defense did not even appear at the trials.
Adrian Veştea, the mayor with a dual identity
In the case of the civil case concerning the city of Râşnov, it can be easily observed that in 2013, when the act was registered, the mayor of Râşnov was Adrian Veştea, the current president of the Braşov City Council. At the end of the trial, in 2016, the president of the Braşov City Council was already the former mayor of Râşnov. The same mayor was in a dual position, as the representative of the plaintiff and then as the representative of the defendant, in the same case.
Recon & Doje beat the Municipality in the lawsuit
It seems incredible, but it is true, Recon & Doje, the contractor for the water and sewerage distribution networks in Făgăraş, beat the Făgăraş Municipality in court. This is despite the fact that for 3 years it transformed the city into a chaotic construction site. But the company will collect from the local budget the amount of 109,305.08 lei and the related interest in the amount of 490,000 lei. This is about the civil decision no. 1448/2017 issued by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Section VIII for administrative and fiscal disputes. Through File no. 28303/3/2015, the Recon&Doje company called the Făgăraş Local Council and the Făgăraş Municipality to court to abolish HCL no. 23/2012 which established special taxes for the use of the public domain. The trial lasted 2 years, but the company won its case before the municipality, which was obliged to refund the company the amounts calculated from the special taxes. Thus, the total amount of 599,305 lei will leave the local budget. (Lucia BAKI)
