ROMANIA: THE CORVETTE WAR (6). Legislative suspicions or criminal misappropriation

By Constantin Radut
The suspension of the acquisition/construction of corvettes for the Romanian Naval Forces has created and creates suspicions and questions. Why was the procedure suspended? Who is involved in this business? It is the politics involved? What is the interest of politics?
To remove a first suspicion: the politics is involved, of course. The political leadership of the country must know with whom it is allied. Especially in the military field. That’s what any country does. Including France, the Netherlands, Italy or the US.
For the strategic acquisitions, dialogue with the political forces in power is inevitable. He did not mistake Liviu Dragnea, the ruling party’s chairman, when he said that for an investment amounting to more than EUR 1.5 billion, a G2G analysis, a government-to-government agreement, a convention is needed to ensure that trust is full and for the long term.
The procedure for the acquisition/construction of four Corvettes for the Romanian Army has been made for quite a long period of time.
It began in 2016 when the Technocrat Government, led by Dacian Ciolos, directly entrusted the Dutch Damen Group to the four corvettes.
The business was declared unlawful by the Social-Democratic Government (established in 2017), whose president is Liviu Dragnea.
A law on the purchase of corvettes was issued (GD 48/2018). The competitors were established from Italy, France and the Netherlands.
Everything went according to the public procurement procedure and Government Decision 48/2018.
The winner was due to be announced on January 12, 2019. But, the day before, the procedure is suspended. The cause: one of the co-competitors, Constanta Shipyard (SNC), in recent association with the French Group of Naval Group, has claimed since October 2018 that the procedure is not legal!
Did the Naval Group in France know about his associate’s approach? We think so. CNC is one of the largest shipyards in Romania owned by a Romanian businessman: Gheorghe Bosinceanu, with Romanian and French citizenship, as they say.
Why did the Naval Group not express dissatisfaction with the SNC complaint that failed to declare the winner of the Correspondent auction?
Eventually it will be.
Let’s resume the proceedings.
At the Constanţa Court of Appeal today, on Wednesday, the lawsuit in the case where Constanţa Shipyard (SNC), as plaintiff, filed a lawsuit against the Government of Romania, through the Ministry of National Defense, demanding the cancellation of the multifunctional corvette auction. The action is based on the fact that European public procurement rules would be violated in this case.
According to the official data presented on the Constanta Court of Appeal Portal, the file on administrative and fiscal litigation was opened at the Civil Section II by Constanţa Shipyard (SNC) SA as plaintiff against the Government of Romania through the Ministry of National Defense . The file is at the stage of the substantive process, its object being “administrative acts of annulment with normative character”. The file appears to be registered on October 19, 2018. By this, SNC is seeking the annulment of GD no. 48/2018 “, a normative act that bases the implementation of the procurement procedure related to the” Multi-Corvette Corvette “Essential Endowment Program.
The process by which (SNC) requested the cancellation of the normative act under which the corvette auction was organized was postponed on Wednesday, to February 20th.
Why? The plaintiff (SNC) was not represented in the proceedings, asking for postponement by fax to find a defender. Surprise, right?
The second surprise: the Damen lawyers have applied for intervention in favor of the Romanian Government. Interesting!
The Constanţa Court of Appeal ordered that Damen’s request be communicated to the parties involved in the trial, the SNC, the Government, the Ministry of National Defense and postponed the deadline for February 20th.
In the race for the endowment of the Romanian Naval Forces with four multifunctional corvettes, a project worth 1.6 billion euros, were accepted the companies Naval Group, from France, in association with Constanţa Shipyard, the Dutchmen from Damen, who in Romania have construction sites in Galati and Mangalia, and the Fincantiers in Italy. One of the criteria was that “the construction of the four corvettes should be carried out in Romania”, with the participation of economic operators from NATO member states that have built similar ships. ” The winner’s appointment was postponed three times.
One of the reasons why SNC would have requested the GD to be canceled on the acquisition of the MApN project The multifunctional corvette would, is due to the criteria imposed by the beneficiary, is bar the participation of the Romanian companies as the main contractor.