Prime Minister’s Control Body begins checks on Romsilva

The Prime Minister’s Control Body has begun an inspection at the National Forest Administration – Romsilva about the operations during the last two years, the government has announced on Thursday.
“The control targets: checking the compliance with legal provisions on the organization and operation of the controlled administration, checking the compliance with legal and internal regulations on the performance of specific tasks and other issues relevant to the control action,” a press release from the Executive informs.
According to the same source, the period subject to the control is January 1, 2014 to present.
The President of the Competition Council, Bogdan Chiriţoiu, said on Wednesday, while in Miercurea Ciuc (central Romania), referring to the issues raised at the auctions on the use of wood, that this is an exaggerated crisis and that he recommended Romsilva to start auctions from the minimum price in the previous year and not from the average price, accusing the institution of misinterpretation of the law.
Bogdan Chiriţoiu explained that a preliminary analysis conducted last year by the Competition Council on the timber industry recommended Romsilva to conduct auctions and not to carry on direct negotiations when selling wood, without competition, so that the state gets a good price, and this principle was taken into the Government Decision on the use of timber.
According to the President of the Competition Council, Romsilva was overzealous in interpreting the Government’s provisions and set the starting price at auctions as the average year price of the previous year.
Several thousand foresters from Suceava County and from other counties, along with forest owners and furniture producers, staged a protest rally on Sunday downtown Bucharest, in Piata Victoriei, in front of the Government. They were dissatisfied with the new prices of wood – up by 300 percent, they claim at the start of the auctions.
The Environment Ministry has informed last week that, according to its analysis and to the reasons given by traders on the failure of auctions shows that the Romsilva prices are too high.