Fagaras Town Hall Asks Court To Declare Local Factory Bankrupt

The Fagaras Town Hall has asked the local court to declare the Fagaras-based Fabrica de Pulberi (the Powders Factory) bankrupt for a largely overdue debt of 9 billion RON of which 5 billion RON stands for payments for delay. The employees of the factory, who are members of the Nitramonia - Rompiro Union, reacted saying they would picket the Fagaras Town Hall, then they gave up on this decision, but the conflict can be reignited at any time. The decision to picket the Town Hall was made by the union leaders in an attempt to stop the bankruptcy procedure, which they described as "excessive and ill-timed" because it would cause all the employees to lose their jobs and threaten the safety of the chemical installations and, therefore, of the entire town. Union leader Lucian Cupu said the Town Hall"s demand was at least "peculiar." Moreover, he found it strange that the Town Hall should be so fast with impounding the assets of the factories in an attempt to recover local taxes that had not been paid for two years. "The Town Hall demanded our bankruptcy for four billion old lei, which is now nine billion if you count the penalties for delay, although the debt is collateralized with assets worth 1,000 billion old lei. Moreover, the Powders Factory was created by splitting the Special Products Plant more than two years ago, but, because of some obstacles, the Government act establishing it was delayed one and a half years, so the factory actually started working half a year ago," Cupu said. According to Law 477/2003 concerning national defense readiness, the factory is part of the defense system and is therefore exempted from local taxes. Cupu believes that real estate interests were the real trigger of the Town Hall"s decision, because the land under the factory and a nearby building with a tourism potential are worth a lot. Fagaras Mayor Sorin Manduc said he was forced to start the bankruptcy procedure, otherwise the State Court of Audit would hold him responsible for not trying to collect the State"s money. "We started a lawsuit, which we later suspended when Romarm and the factory promised us to give us land towards the payment of the debt because they had no money. They promised to do so by 1. November, but that did not happen, so we resumed the lawsuit. We also accepted to talk to the union, although they were not part to the litigation, but the situation remained unchanged. We only want to receive the signature of Romarm, AVAS and the factory"s Board that property will be given to us in exchange for the debt. Everything else is groundless allegations," Manduc said.