Despite employing thousands of lawyers, the state paid 80m euros to law firms in three years

State institutions, central and local, spent 80 million euros between 2008 and 2010 (27 million euros per year) on law firm fees, while at the same time paying thousands of lawyers who work within state institutions, reveals a report of the Court of Accounts sent to the speakers of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies at the beginning of October. The Court of Accounts terms this a waste of money and calls on Parliament to intervene.
The central authorities and the subordinated ones (public corporations, companies) paid 75 million euros to external lawyers in the above-mentioned mentioned period, even though they have 6,800 lawyers employed, to whom they paid nearly 65 million euros for their services. Local institutions paid nearly 66 million euros to their own lawyers and 14 million euros to external ones.
In all, the state paid 928 million RON (220 million euros) to lawyers - 550 million RON (130 million euros) of which to internal lawyers and 337 million RON (80 million euros) to law firms. The legislation does not prohibit public entities from hiring law firms, but the Court of Accounts warns that the state, despite having a thick legal apparatus, pays millions of euros to law firms.