Access Investments-European Union- ROMANIA

The ninth arrangement that Romania is preparing to sign with the IMF next month kicks off with a rather vague agenda, less ambitious than the preceding letters of intent which, in fact, were left with some unmet targets every time. According to the letter of intent obtained by Mediafax, the problem of the arrears accumulated by the big state companies - the chapter of the current arrangement where Romania has fallen behind the most, is discussed in a paragraph in which the Government announces the shift of financial control from the respective ministries to the Finance Ministry. In addition, the régies and the companies subordinated to the local authorities will report financial indicators on a quarterly basis to the Finance Ministry, but there are no means of penalising slippages, if they continued to occur. Much more ambitious are the plans announced recently by Jeffrey Franks, chief of the IMF mission for Romania, who talked about evaluating and setting a strategy for a list of 150 state companies. But the provisions of the letter of intent published by Mediafax do not include any mention of this list. (Z.F)