Romanian Agriculture Min Sacks 60 Paying Agency Managers Over Delayed Subsidy Payments

Romanian agriculture minister Ilie Sarbu sacked Thursday 18 managers of the central structure of the country’s Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture (APIA) and 42 local managers, saying they failed to observe deadlines to start payments to farmers.
"I dismissed, Thursday, 42 local APIA managers and 18 managers from the agency’s central structure, because they failed to start payments per hectare by March 15. I also gave them a four-day grace period, but they said they needed an extra three weeks. I cannot accept that because we’d be mocking these people (farmers - e.n.)," Sarbu told MEDIAFAX.

The 42 people dismissed from the local management of the paying agency are the executive mangers of APIA’s county centers.

The minister also said three of the local managers dismissed have been promoted into the central structure of the agency and Melinda Kerekes is now APIA’s interim general manager, replacing Mariana Draghici, and Dorel Penu and Nicolae Stroescu have been appointed deputy general managers.

The agency manages both European Union funds for the agriculture sector and state funds assigned to farmers.

Sarbu said in February that 2008 subsidies per hectare should be paid starting March 19.

EU rules state that a member state needs to pay subsidies per hectare by June 30 of the year following that for which payments are made.

The European Commission calculated penalties of EUR8.4 million for Romania over delayed subsidies per hectare for 2007, the deadline of which expired in June 2008.