The huge debts taken over by the new mayor Ciprian Ciucu. “It's a small miracle that Nicușor Dan kept the town hall afloat”

Mayor Ciprian Ciucu announces debts of over 2 billion lei that the Capital City Hall and the institutions or companies subordinate to it have. A large part of these debts is made up of the debts accumulated by the Bucharest Transport Company (STB), about which the new mayor says that, if he does not pay the debts, he is close to bankruptcy, informs News.ro.

The General Mayor of the Capital announces that he has analyzed financial data regarding the activity of the main companies of the City Hall for the last ten years.

He presented data showing that the City Hall has debts in the amount of 2.105 billion lei, of which 811 million lei for the transport subsidy, 504 million lei for the heating subsidy, 470 million lei for incentives granted in the form of social aid, 232 million lei represent the debts of subordinate institutions and 88 million lei of the businessman Costică Constanda, who won a lawsuit in court after which the city hall has to pay him 125 million lei, an amount for which installments were made.

STB, on the verge of bankruptcy

For STB, the mayor says that payments and budget credits for the transport company “started to explode” from 2019, after the transformation of the former transport company into STB.

Ciprian Ciucu announced that STB is close to bankruptcy, accumulating debts of over one billion lei to the state budget, most of which comes from non-payment of employee contributions.

“At the moment, we do not have 2025, but I tell you that it is much more than 2024, because I know from the outside, it is 1.38 billion today, the debt that STB has with ANAF. So from my point of view, with this debt, if we do not pay on time those installments that the former mayor general thought, this company is almost bankrupt. And I am not afraid to say this word. So, we are talking about 1.38 billion, once again, the debts that STB has to ANAF”, stated Ciprian Ciucu, on Saturday, in the first press conference held as general mayor of the Capital.

As for RADET/Termoenergetica, it announces that, from 2019, the budget continued to grow, with decreases in 2024 and 2025, after the pipeline repairs began. Termoenergetica also has debts to ANAF, the mayor explained, emphasizing that there is a debt of 3 billion lei for which the City Hall is being sued, and besides this there are other debts.

“The mayor takes money from the Government and passes it on”

“I want to say, right from the start, that Mr. President Nicusor Dan was and is right regarding the structural problem of the budget of the municipality of Bucharest (…) It is a small miracle that Mr. former mayor general Nicusor Dan managed to keep this city hall afloat”, stated Ciprian Ciucu at the beginning of his first press conference as mayor general.

He emphasized that he does not want to talk about the “difficult inheritance” but about “how he got into this situation”.
Ciucu presented the expenses made by the Capital City Hall in the first 11 months of this year, showing that approximately 53% of the money of the city hall was spent on heating, transport, 9% on payments for social assistance. He added that the city hall also has “many, many debts”.

“It can be seen that this town hall is not a development agency, where the mayor does not have a lot of flexibility to think about projects and policies, but only to take money from the Government, where it comes from, to make further payments. This is what any general mayor can do today, that it is me, that it is someone else, he has nothing else to do but to give money further”, stated Ciprian Ciucu.