Recorder, reaction to the RA-APPS press release from the “Emperor’s Palace” scandal: “The Directorate does not present any documents and does not answer the essential questions related to this investment”

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The Recorder publication posted on Facebook a reaction to what it calls “an attempt by the Autonomous Government of the State Protocol Heritage Administration to defuse the public scandal surrounding the €7 million investment in a single-family protocol residence.”

Investigation Recorder: “The Emperor’s Palace” Photo: Screenshot

The Recorder journalists claim that “in a long list of justifications, RA-APPS slips in some new information, but does not present any documents or answer the essential questions related to this investment”.

Here is the Recorder’s view, posted on Facebook:

“1. Regia claims that “the plans, simulations and interior images circulated in the public space do not correspond to the approved documentation, being the result of simple speculations”.

The Recorder has published the exterior plans, as they appear in the documentation submitted by RA-APPS to the Capital City Hall. Regarding the interior sketches, we relied on the information from an official document – the Proposal for the functional composition of the building (Annex 1 to the building permit submitted to several state institutions).

This is how we arrived at a graphic simulation of the architectural plans that I presented as such. We publicly request RA-APPS to officially clarify whether, in the documents for the development of Aviatorilor (no. 86), the following spaces are listed:

E12 – dressing de 66,9 mp,

E07 – greenhouse 1 of 18.6 sqm,

E11 – greenhouse 2 of 15.2 sqm,

E06 – gym of 25.2 sqm,

E08 – gym 2 of 20.4 sqm,

E02 – bedroom 2 of 37.7 sqm,

E10 – bedroom 1 of 37.1 sqm,

P11 – library of 43.6 sqm.

And the list can go on.

2. RA-APPS announces that “the sums paid for the works executed, up to the date of the present, are in the amount of 2,100,000 lei”. We thus find out the total of the payments already made, but not a word is said about the value of the whole project.

The directorate does not even refer to the estimated value of the works, which appears explicitly in the latest investment budget of SAIFI (the Bucharest branch of RA-APPS), signed by the general director of RA-APPS: 35,292,000 lei. That is, over 7 million euros. In short, RA-APPS did not deny this amount, but only communicated the payments made so far.

3. As an argument for a significant investment, RA-APPS cites the age of the building and the fact that it “shows major deterioration”. So, “extensive consolidation work is required.”

We request the RA-APPS to publicly present the expert report which found such an advanced state of degradation that the building requires the investment of 7 million euros estimated in the budget.

4. Another argument is the assimilation of the building to a historical monument. According to the RA-APPS, “the work to be carried out on the building in question is part of the strategy of consolidating and preserving the state’s heritage, by making investments in emblematic buildings/historical monuments”.

We also mentioned this statute in the “Emperor’s Palace” investigation. It’s just that we also notice the discrepancy in the prioritization of money when it comes to the monuments on which Regia has started work.

The next two investment projects of SAIFI, in terms of estimated value, are at a great distance: 10,000,000 lei (Str. Pictor Alexandru Romano, no. 19) and 4,250,000 lei (Casa Presei). And both are institutional buildings, not single-family homes.

5. Also, the institution claims that the work in Aviatorilor (no. 86) “is financed exclusively from RA-APPS’ own funds, no budgetary funds being accessed”.

In other words, it would not be public money. Public finance experts, whom we consulted, draw attention to the fact that Law 500/2002, as well as the standards of transparency and responsibility in the field of public finances, also apply to the budgets of theaters financed in whole or in part from own revenues. RA-APPS revenues come, for the most part, from rents collected from public institutions for buildings that also belong to the state. In other words, even if they appear as RA-APPS’ own funds, they are still public money”, the publication points out.

We remind you that the Autonomous Region “Administration of the Heritage of the State Protocol sent, on Thursday, a first reaction in the scandal of the protocol villa in Aviatorilor, claiming that there is no request regarding the assignment of the building, and the amounts paid for the works executed so far are in the amount of 2,100 .000 lei.

The “Emperor’s Palace” scandal started from a new Recorder investigation

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu stated, about the protocol villa in Aviatorilor Boulevard where works are being carried out and which could be assigned to President Klaus Iohannis at the end of his mandate, that it is a building with seismic risk, class A historical monument.

“What I asked at RA-APPS and I was answered very clearly: no money from the state budget was invested. That is the decision of the Board of Administration. They are from his own income”, declared Ciolacu, adding that the head of state did not ask him for a living space or to approve any money for a building in Romania that would become his residence.

The Presidential Administration sent on Tuesday for its part that there is no request from the head of state Klaus Iohannis or the Presidential Administration, for the allocation of a protocol residence and a space for a work cabinet, both with the destination of residence, after the end of the president’s mandate.

Recorder presented on Monday an investigation entitled “The Emperor’s Palace: seven million euros of public money for the comfort of a single family” according to which a construction site shrouded in secrecy appeared on Aviatorilor Boulevard in Bucharest, in one of the exclusive areas of the Capital total.

It is about works on a 1,200 square meter villa, which was, until recently, party headquarters, and for several months, it has been transformed, in the greatest secrecy, into a residence for a single family. According to the Recorder, the amount that RA-APPS intends to invest exceeds any imagination, 7 million euros only for renovation and development.

Journalists from the Recorder specified that, according to the law, the circle of dignitaries who would have the right to such protocol housing offered by the state is very limited. And most of the clues lead to the same person, namely the president Klaus Iohannis.