Over the same period, MDRT signed 499 funding contracts for projects conducted under the 2007-2013 Regional Development Operational Programme worth 590 million euros.
'The money contracted or paid to the beneficiaries of the Regional Development Operational Programme is an injection of capital into the economy that created the premises for investment projects worth 600 million euros in the full swing of an economic crisis in Romania,' reads the release.
MDRT also reports it had to take urgent measures to rectify the poor performance of the management and control system of the Regional Development Operational Programme that was highlighted this year by the European Commission following the commission's suits mission in January-December 2011. According to MDRT, one of the main problems identified by the European Commission is the public procurement procedures conducted by the beneficiaries in 2009-2011 for the implemented projects. The findings of the audit mission indicate that some beneficiaries breached the legal provisions of public procurement.
Early this November, State Secretary with MDRT Marcel Bolos said the pre-suspension measure introduced by the European Commission in relation to the ROP could be lifted by the end of the year.
As of November 1, 2012, the ROP contracting rate was 98 percent and the absorption rate 21.1 percent.
'As far as the absorption goes, the ROP had the highest absorption rate of all the operational programmes, at 21.1 percent, which means 786 million euros,' said Bolos.
On October 26, MDRT announced that refund applications for 200 million euros submitted to the European Commission will be frozen following the pre-suspension of the ROP.
Five of the six axes of the ROP were to be pre-suspended: axis one - support for sustainable urban development; axis three - improving social infrastructure; axis four - support for the business community; axis five - sustainable development and promotion of tourism; axis six - technical assistance.
The pre-suspension measure came after a European Commission team audited the ROP February - May 2012 in terms of the public procurement conducted by the ROP beneficiaries, January 1 - December 31, 2011 on a sample of refund applications worth 90 million euros - 139 such applications - or 30.28 percent of the total ROP expenses refunded by the European Commission.
