Romania’s Transport Ministry sent its Control Body to the National Road Infrastructure Company (CNAIR) to check the legality of several infrastructure management contracts, including the contract with French company Egis, which has been supervising the construction work of the Transylvania Highway.

Clotilde Armand, the French-Romanian who almost won the elections for mayor in Bucharest’s District 1 last year, is running Egis’ operations in Romania, reports local Mediafax. Armand is also one of the best-known members of the Union to Save Romania (USR) party.

The Transylvania Highway should connect some of the most important cities in Transylvania, going from Brasov to Targu Mures, Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, and ending at the border between Romania and Hungary.

The contract between the Romanian authorities and Egis was concluded in August 2004 after a public tender. Egis had to supervise the design and construction of the 415-km highway, split into eight sections. The contract’s value amounted to RON 235 million, without VAT. Egis has been paid each year, although work on the highway is far behind schedule.

American group Bechtel started working on this the highway in 2003, but only completed one section of it before the state cancelled the contract in 2013. Romania paid EUR 1.2 billion to Bechtel and the state took a EUR 526 million damage from the contract, according to a report of the Finance Ministry.

editor@romania-insider.com