The interim District 4 mayor in Bucharest stopped construction works for Colectiv monument in Lumea Copiilor park, also suspending the heads of the District 4 Park Direction after controversial facts regarding the monument’s location and assigning contract have emerged in the mass media and on social media.
“District 4 mayor Daniel Baluta decided to stop the urbanistic works in Lumea Copiilor Park and to immediately suspend from office the leadership of the District 4 Park Management Directions, which was in charge of this project. At the same time, the interim mayor sent his Control Body at the Park Direction to undergo several checking,’ reads a press release by the District 4 Hall.
The press reported that the company that had won the contract to set up the monument is based in Oltenita, a small town in southern country, specialized in metallic constructions. However the company has a single employer and it would cash in EUR 71,000 (over RON 300,000) from the District 4 Hall, which is the maximum amount allowed by the law in the case of directly assigned contracts. In this case, no public sale is held.
The District 4 mayor says in retort he is not going to set up any monument in the park, but only to plant 64 Japanese cherry trees, in the memory of the 64 victims of the deadly fire at the Colectiv club on October 30 last year.
On the other hand, the potential location of the monument has also stirred the discontent of the environment activists and of the locals, who say that the monument would be located in the grills’ area, which would be an insult to the victims. “Many of the grills in the area are activated, I think it’s an insult brought to the victims, who, most of them, you know very well, have died due to the inhaled toxic smoke,” Ecocivica president Dan Trifu told Digi24.