Cinteză to chirp before the Senate in the CEC Bank row

Nicolae Cinteză, (ed: note: cinteză - chaffinch) the head of the oversight department of the Romanian National Bank (BNR), will appear, on December 9th, before the subcommission in charge of investigating if the activity of CEC Bank was in compliance with the rules of procedure stipulated in the bank's bylaws and regulations. He will be heard on the same day as Radu Graţian Gheţea, the president of CEC Bank, and as Daniel Chiţoiu, the Minister of Public Finance, as decided by the members of the Commission of budget, finance, banking activity and equity market of the Senate.

On Monday the Senate decided to set up an subcommission as part of the aforementioned commission. The decision comes on the back of the row concerning the granting by the bank of a loan of 1 million Euros to Ioana Băsescu, the oldest daughter of the president, in order to acquire a plot of land in the county of Călăraşi.

Yesterday's reunion of the budget and finance commission which was supposed to set up, among other things, the schedule of the hearings in the case of CEC Bank, has begun under the shadow of uncertainty.

Even though at first, six of the commission's members were present in the room, namely president Cosmin Nicula (PSD), vice-president Iulian Dumitrescu (PNL), secretary Leonardo Badea (PSD), Viorel Arcaş (PSD), Akos Mora (PNL) and Marius Bălu (PDL), their number quickly fell below the threshold needed to meet the quorum. Marius Bălu left the room after just a few minutes, saying that he would come back only after the discussions on the CEC issue are over, in line with the statement of the president of the PDL, Vasile Blaga, who said that the senators of the PDL will not attend the works of the commission.

Shortly after its departure, the number of members present grew back to six, after the return of the other democrat liberal who is a member of the commission, Marius Isăilă. He sat on the meeting for even less time than his colleague, which means that the leaders of the Budget and Finance commission weren't even able to hold the ordinary meeting.

The problem was solved eventually, after Sorin Bota (PSD) and Alexandru Vegh (UDMR) joined their colleagues. Also on the commission are Petru Ehegartner (PNL) and Constantin Popa (PP-DD - the People's Party-Dan Diaconescu), who did not attend the talks either.

Cosmin Nicula proposed for the hearings to take place between December 9th and 12th, with the first day to be reserved for the CEO of CEC Bank and the Minister of Public Finance. Iulian Dumitrescu also proposed for Nicolae Cinteză to be heard, as he is the head of the Oversight Department of the NBR, whereas Sorin Bota advised having the first-vice-president of CEC Bank, Andrei Stamatian, and the members of the Board of Directors in charge of the lending activity appear before the parliamentary commission as well.

The Commission has decided that Radu Graţian Gheţea, Daniel Chiţoiu and Nicolae Cinteză would be heard on December 9th, Andrei Stamatian and other members of the Board of Directors would be heard on December 10th, and the last two days would be reserved for the hearings of several branch managers of CEC Bank.

Also, its members have decided to ask the bank to provide the Parliament, by December 9th, the list of all the loans granted under special terms, starting with the year 2011.

• Cosmin Nicula, PSD: "The members of the commission can request the replacement of the chairman of CEC Bank"

Cosmin Nicula said that, after the investigation of the parliamentary commission has drawn its conclusions, its members can propose to the Permanent Office the replacement of the chairman of CEC Bank.

The Commission must present a report concerning its findings by December 18th.

When asked about the suspicions which the members of the commission have about the activity of CEC Bank, Cosmin Nicula answered: "We are not talking about suspicions right now. You've all seen on TV what happened in Braşov, where the National Anti-Corruption Department has arrested or is investigating two former branch managers, we will want to find out how Mr. Gheţea is seeing the activity of CEC Bank from now on".

Concerning the replacement of the president of CEC Bank, following this parliamentary investigation, that the members of the commission can only make a proposal to the Permanent Office.

"Furthermore, the plenum of the Senate and the Ministry of Finance have this power to change the managers of CEC Bank", he explained.

When asked if the Parliament isn't overlapping with the Ministry of Finance, in this investigation, the president of the Budget and Finance Commission said that these things represent a problem for the Ministry of Public Finance. "The Romanian parliament is not subordinated to the Government, nor the Ministry of Finance", he said.

CEC Bank became the object of a media and political scandal, after it was found that it granted a loan of 1 million Euros to Ioana Băsescu, money which she used to buy a plot of land in the county of Călăraşi, for her father, president Traian Băsescu.

Prime minister Victor Ponta yesterday said that he talked to the leaders of the parliamentary groups to create an investigation commission in the "Călăraşi case", because the Commission of the Senate has a different mission, namely to review the activity of CEC Bank.

"The leaders of the groups of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the National Liberal Party (PNL), and the Conservative Party told me that they are working on creating a joint commission. (...) The group leaders want to propose a commission of the House of Deputies and the Senate that would investigate the activity of all the people employed by the public institutions related to the affair of Călăraşi", he said.

However, according to sources in the press, the leader of the deputies of the PNL, George Scutaru, said that neither him, nor Puiu Haşotti, the leader of the liberal senators, have been contacted to talk about the issue of the creation of the investigation commission announced by the prime minister.

Scutaru also said that the leader of the PNL, Crin Antonescu, did not have a discussion on this matter with the prime-minister.

After this statement, journalists waited for Victor Ponta outside the office of the president of the Chamber of Deputies and told him that several parliamentarians of the PNL were not aware about the plan to create this commission.

"Well, they haven't had a chance to talk about it (ed. note: the liberals), we've only spoken now, here", the prime-minister said.

He also said that he talked on the phone with Crin Antonescu, the president of the National Liberal Party (PNL), and agreed to his proposal.