The Romanian Court of Auditors has recently revealed how much money can be stolen on a yearly basis from a single city hall, from the taxes paid by citizens. The Court has discovered such cases emerge once or twice a week at a national level.

Nicolae Vacaroiu, the president of the Romanian Court of Auditors, said some EUR 178,000 (RON 800,000) can be stolen yearly in a single local city hall from the taxes collected from citizens, News.ro reported.

“This is not an isolated thing […]. In 80% of the cases the money is returned within 24 hours, but the theft is still a theft,” Vacaroiu said, quoted by News.ro.

He said that the institution he is running sent 124 files coming from 3,200 territorial units to be investigated by prosecutors. “The law compels us, in the case in which there are criminal elements, to send them for legal investigation,” he said.

At a Senate Budget Committee hearing, Vacaroiu also said the court could end up ceasing to exist after its budget was cut at the beginning of the year, the first such cut in its 153 years of existence, News.ro reported.

“Every year, from the operative control, we bring in some EUR 200 million, from the yearly checks, and from the past decisions that are fulfilled, overall there are some EUR 1.2 billion a year,” Vacaroiu said.

The Court of Auditors recently looked at the under-funding of the local agricultural research sector, Pressone.ro reported. A report issued this March by the court argues that the Agriculture Ministry  and the governments of the 2009 -2016 period were not able to reorganize the agricultural research and development centers, as is it was legally required. Throughout this period, local agricultural research self-supported itself, with consequences ranging from abandoning research in several areas to being unable to keep researchers in the country or adopting a “financial survival” policy.

editor@romania-insider.com