* The Agency for State Properties (ADS) has yet to receive the money from the privatization of agricultural companies and the plots of land it sold off
The state has over 130 million Euros in outstanding debt by various associations or private companies to which it sold or concessioned companies or farming land, according to a report by the Agency for State Properties (ADS), which was requested by BURSA.
98% of the outstanding amounts originate from the contracts for the privatization of agricultural companies and for the concessioning of land between 2000 and 2004.
Several factors complicate the collection of the outstanding amounts include "the ungrounded court rulings which many times are issued in favor of the investors", the litigations involving the land, or the investors invoking natural disasters to avoid paying the royalties for the concessioned plots of farming land, ADS officials said.
Other factors that make it difficult to collect the claims are the partners in the privatization contract entering bankruptcy, the long time the courts take to award compensation and the spin-offs or mergers of the partner companies.
For instance, on December 31st, 2009, the Agency had outstanding receivables worth 524.5 million lei (more than EUR 130 million).
The collection of the claims is extremely tenuous. Last year only 78.6 million lei, or 15% of the outstanding debt was recovered, according to the ADS.
According to data provided by the ADS, the five largest debtors are SC Trei Brazi SRL (99.1 million lei), Asociaţia Agricolă Toamna Bogată (13.5 million lei), SC Corias Corabia SA (7.9 million lei), SC Protan SA (5.9 million lei) and SC Principal Construct (4.5 million lei). The five companies account for about 25% of the claims that the state has yet to collect.
The officials of the ADS said that most of the outstandin
