Udrea announces war on contractors who underbid on construction projects

The Ministry of Development will no longer accept dumping prices in bids for public construction projects. Elena Udrea, the Minister of Development, yesterday said in a seminar focused on the construction market, that in many cases, after signing contracts for which contractors underbid, mayoralties later accept addendums to the contracts which doubled or tripled the final cost of the project.

She said: "I can give you an example pertaining to the thermal rehabilitation of apartment buildings. In the case of a project which had an estimated cost of 10 million lei, the contract was awarded to a contractor whose bid was 4 million lei. Eventually, after signing various addendums to the contract, the investment cost 12 million lei. We have decided that the Ministry of Development, which bears half of the cost of the thermal rehabilitation cost, would have a say in the auctions held by mayoralties. Thus, the end price paid may not exceed the winning bid by more than 10%. Any additional payment will need to be approved by the Ministry and by homeowner associations, as the latter have to bear 20% of the final price of the project".

The Ministry of Development yesterday said it received numerous complaints from the homeowner associations, that sometimes had the surprise of having to pay as much as double the winning bid.

Elena Udrea is extremely unhappy with the chairmen of the councils of some counties who did not spend wisely the money allocated by the Ministry of Development for infrastructure projects and for the water and sewer grids. She said: "Since we do not have enough money available, we will prioritize our projects in order to have our investments help develop the areas where they are made, in turn leading to increased revenues of the state budget. I will apply the same principles when it comes to allocating the funds for the program for the development of tourism". This will prevent the chairmen of county councils from making politically biased decisions when it comes to awarding contracts.