After the attempts to sell Oltchim and CFR Marfă, the privatization of the Romanian Post Office is the third biggest failure of the Government this year, as the privatization is over before it has even begun.
The government succeeds in being, or at least in looking like it is increasingly ineffective. Whereas in the case of Oltchim, the call for tenders was awarded to a winner without the deal actually going through, at CFR Marfă not even one investor company has qualified on the first attempt, meaning that a drastic loosening of the conditions of the call for tenders was necessary in order to draw up a short list, and for the privatization of the Romanian Post Office not even one investor bought the presentation documentation of the company.
What results will the Romanian government have to show to the mission of the IMF, about one month from now, if it fails to fulfill almost all of the conditions required by the representatives of the international institutions?
* Historic debts - an obstacle to investors, the government is trying to cancel as many of the arrears as possible
It would seem that the debts were also an obstacle in the privatization of Oltchim and of CFR Marfă.
Ion Smeeianu, the general manager of the Romanian Post Office National Company (Compania Naţională Poşta Română - CNPR), yesterday said, after the expiration of the deadline for the purchasing of the tender book, that it was the large debts of the of the Romanian state-owned post operator that have dissuaded investors from participating in its privatization.
He also said that the most important concerns that the potential investors have raised yesterday during the talks they had ,have concerned, among other things, aspects such as the historic debts of the company, which have increased significantly bigger following the audit of the Romanian National Tax Admi
