President Klaus Iohannis has referred to the Constitutional Court the law amending the organisation and functioning of the Court of Auditors, for reasons of unconstitutionality.
The head of state argues that the law was debated and adopted after exceeding the constitutional deadline of 60 days set for the first notified chamber of Parliament.
“In our view, the bi-chamber principle has been violated by the adoption of the bill by the decision making chamber in a substantial different form than that of the other chamber, by ignoring the essential criteria set by the constitutional jurisprudence,” the Presidency release reads.
The President added that the bill also violates other articles of the Constitution.
“Although the European Union has warned that it will cut the European funds, if the draft bill will be adopted to drastically limit the Court of Auditors powers, the Senate adopted, in early July, as decision making chamber, the law on amending the organisation and functioning of the Court of Auditors,” the release reads, adding that Romania could lose funds amounting to EUR 18 billion, plus the direct payments for agriculture.
According to the new provisions of the law, the most important decisions of the Court of Auditors will be made by the institution’s President, Mihai Busuioc, former Government secretary general and a close person to PSD leader, Liviu Dragnea, ziare.com informs.
Furthermore, the Court of Auditors will not have a say about the opportunity of certain public procurements, which will be dealt with by the National Agency for Public Procurement, subordinated to the Government. The court will not be able to recover the damages, will be competent only to file recommendations.