Romanian minister: Original document of expensive Bechtel highway contract, nowhere to be found

As the Transilvania highway contract between Romania and American builder Bechtel was recently canceled, the authorities are now having a hard time finding the original contract signed in 2003, in order to finally make it public. The already controversial contract was added annexes in 2005 - which considerably raised the highway price - and was formally declassified in 2006. While copies of the contract were discovered, the original document was never found, said Dan Sova, the Minister for Large Projects (in picture, middle). The Government recently published several documents referring to this contract, mainly clauses from 2006 and 2011 (here, in Romanian)which change the original contract. In reality, the original contract was never made public, despite formal decisions to do so. Dan Sova said this document is nowhere to be found at the Transport Ministry. In response, the former Transport Minister Anca Boagiu called him 'incompetent' and told him the exact room at the Transport Ministry where the contract should be found. The initial EUR 2.2 billion highway contract became a EUR 10 billion contract after annexes were signed, as the initial document only mentioned construction material price estimations, that turned out too low. The 412-kilometer Brasov – Bors highway, which is was supposed to be finalized in 2012, is only 52 kilometers done, and Romania spent EUR 1.4 billion for this segment. The contract was canceled earlier this year, and Romania still owes Bechtel EUR 37 million. editor@romania-insider.com