Romania president Basescu suspends Supreme Defense Council session. Interior Minister spends 45,000 Euros per car for "options"

Marţi, 14 octombrie 2008, 17:08 English | Politics

President Traian Basescu suspended on Tuesday the works of the Supreme Defense Council and released a statement to the press, explaining the reasons for his decision. The main problem was the fact that the Council was not notified in due time on some documents about to be presented during the session, most of it referring to budget spending at the Interior Ministry and the Defense Ministry. One of the information released by the president is that the Interior Ministry bought over 300 cars worth 11,000 Euros each, which were upgraded with 45,000 worth of options each.

In brief:
- The session was suspended because some of the data about to be presented should have been sent to the Council members before the session, mainly budget spending-related information. Since this did not happen, it is impossible to approve the named documents without studying it.
- "I have the demand to be fully and correctly informed, so that nothing remains hidden in these sessions. This is why I suspended it", said Basescu;
- "Some wanted a fast management report without too many explanations. I could not accept it. I will notify the state institutions for a serious analysis";
- Traian Basescu pointed at 29 contracts at the Interior Ministry, for the procurement of 2,136 vehicles. Out of these, over 300 Dacia Logan units, costing 11,000 Euros each, were bought with optional features worth 45,000 Euros per car.
- "The list of issues to be discussed today included an update on the Romania's accession to the Schengen space program and the was the money was spent for the first stage of the program. The money is almost entirely spent - some 240 million Euros - but there is no visible progress", said the head of state.
- Also about the Schengen accession program, Traian Basescu says that EC experts put up several reports, but none of the documents was ever introduced to the Supreme Defense Council, probably in the attempt to cover up the experts' opinion.