Bolojan says he tried to stop the looting of public money: “I discovered hidden pantries and turned on the light in the government”
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan declared on Thursday that, over the years, the state budget was used discretionarily by inefficient local and central administrations, being treated “like a piggy bank” from which various interests were constantly fed.
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan Photo: inquam photos
In an interview with Rock FM, Bolojan spoke about the tensions within the governing coalition, in the context of the adoption of unpopular economic measures.
“There was very high pressure for the adoption of a first package of measures that would show the European Commission that Romania is correcting its deficit. Otherwise, we would risk the suspension of European funds, which would have created major difficulties”, explained the prime minister.
He also blamed the emergence of political tensions generated by austerity measures and administration reform, claiming that some governing partners adopted a public discourse different from the coalition position.
“We were taking measures that were not popular, that invalidated the theory that if someone votes for us, we have a cornucopia from which we can solve all the citizens' wishes, the opposition inside the government started to play this trick”said Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.
Another sensitive point mentioned by Bolojan was the functioning of local administrations. According to him, a system based on political influence and preferential allocations of funds was perpetuated in this area.
“We started to check where the problems are in the government, to discover the hidden pantries that are not right and turn on the light. That created some problems. On the one hand, think that for years the state budget has been used as a piggy bank by non-performing administrations and people who, in their counties, function as peasants. They thought that the old habits of calling, solving their inefficiency through directed allocations from the state budget will continue to function. It was no longer possible.”said the prime minister.
Bolojan also claimed that reforms in the area of state-owned companies and attempts to reduce losses and tax evasion have generated discontent in certain areas of influence.
“We tried to stop the looting of public money. Let's take measures to combat tax evasion, to eliminate waste and losses from state companies, to allow, for example, the access of energy producers to the national system. (…) When you try to stop waste and introduce real corporate governance rules, there is resistance. Many times, management selections did not lead to the best performers, but to those with political support“, added the prime minister.
