The District 1 mayor of Bucharest, Clotilde Armand says there is no contract valid between the District 1 City Hall and Romprest sanitation company as two final and irrevocable court rulings found out that this contract had been fraudulently concluded and had cancelled it.
“I started the legal proceedings for this contract is null from all points of view. Case closed Romprest. We want our money back and to leave as soon as possible”, mayor Armand posted on Facebook on Thursday evening.
“On the day when the former district 1 mayor Andrei Chiliman signed this contract, on June 30, 2018, the Bucharest Court of Appeal was cancelling the entire acquisition procedure in a final and irrevocable ruling, as it was breaking all EU directive and the EU Court of Justice’s case law on contracts and services concessions. The Brasov Court of Appeal pronounced the second final and irrevocable ruling in this case on March 22, 2011. It was confirmed one more time, that the sanitation contract in District 1 was concluded with no legal ground. So, the Romprest contract was signed in the justice’s contempt, with the PSD and PNL approvals. Nobody said a word about that. I ask these questions again: who’s giving our money back for those 12 years when we’ve been paying the most expensive sanitation service in Romania and how many public servants, mayors and deputy mayors will be held accountable in court? We’ll find out. I started the legal proceedings for this contract is totally null,” Clotilde Armand said.
However, also Thursday that District 1 Court ruled that Romprest can foreclose the District 1 City Hall, for the debts that the municipality has to the sanitation firm. Romprest claims there is a debt of over RON 120 million in 21 unpaid bills.
Also on Thursday the Bucharest prefect announced he will not consent to the enforcement of the state of alert in District 1 over the garbage issue, as mayor Clotilde Armand has asked.
As for the Liberals, the leader of PNL District 1 organisation, Sebastian Burduja said that the best solution in the garbage issue in the district is transparency, arguing that mayor Clotilde Armand and Romprest can agree to renegotiate the contract.
“First, citizens must leave in a clean city, second, we must not mock at the public money and third, the law must be observed”, Burduja said.