ZIARUL FINANCIAR is publishing today, for the first time, the top 500 companies that conducted business with the state, ranked by the sums awarded based on contracts won from various Romanian institutions last year.
The top five companies are Spedition UMB from Bacau, owned by the Umbrarescu family, Romstrade Giurgiu, controlled by Nelu Iordache (Blue Air), Confort Timisoara, controlled by the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce in Timisoara, Georgica Cornu, PA&CO Bacau, held by Costel Casuneanu and Tel Drum Teleorman, controlled by Mugurel Sorin Gheorghiet and Liviu Lucian Dobrescu. The top five players received 1.34 billion RON (401. 52 million euros) in the last 14 months, based on public procurement contracts.
The ranking, which covers the January 1, 2007 - February 28, 2008 period, was possible to put together because every institution is obliged to send the names of the companies they sign contracts with to the Agency for Information Society Services (ASSI), a rule that was introduced at the beginning of last year. The agency reports to the Ministry of Communications, which maintains the e-licitatie.ro website. However, it is believed that not all of the contracts have been reported to the ASSI, because not every institution has complied with the decision yet. The top 500 companies signed contracts worth around 1.4 billion euros in 2007 and in the first two months of 2008, however public procurement by central and local administrations amounted to some 18 billion euros, that is 15% of GDP or about half of the budget spending, which amounted to 41 billion euros last year.
Contracts that involved the state carried through e-licitatie.ro amounted to merely 35 million euros last year because most tenders and award procedures are not conducted electronically. Last week, however, the Government issued a decision that stipulates that 20% of any public institution procurement deals should go through e-licitatie.ro from now on. As a result, about 3.5 billion euros' worth of contracts should pass through e-licitatie.ro this year.
Most of the UMB Spedition contracts, the biggest private supplier of the Romanian state in 2007, worth a total of 368.18 million RON (110.2 million euros), came from road infrastructure projects of the National Company of Highways and National Roads (CNADNR). Romstrade, the second top company that operates in the road infrastructure field, also won its largest contracts from CNADNR, worth 187.97 million RON (56.32 million euros). The remaining amount, up to the 229.01 million RON (68.62 million euro) in total, was derived from work associated to the municipalities of Giurgiu and Ploiesti. Romstrade is controlled by Nelu Iordache, owner of the low cost airline Blue-Air.
Timisoara-based Confort S.A, which specialises in construction installations signed 174.29 million RON (52.22 million euros) in contracts with institutions such as Enel Distributie Banat, Timisoara City Hall, Hidroelectrica and the Public Corporation for Nuclear Activities. The company is controlled by businessman Georgica Cornu through Isometal.
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