“The newly appointed Romanian Minister of Economy, Claudiu Năsui, must have had a rather unpleasant surprise when he found out that the so-called National Education Center for Tourism (CNIT) has been swallowing up huge amounts of money from the state budget, even though it has had almost no activity at all,” the foter.ro news portal wrote in a recent article. The center-right coalition government lead by Prime Minister Florin Cîţu took office just a day before Christmas, and while it is common knowledge that there are several unnecessary, freeloading organizations supported by the state, the new minister has now been faced with one specific example.
The politician expressed his indignation a few days ago in a comment posted on Facebook. He also emphasized that he has just recently read a report from the Digi.24 news portal that drew attention to CNIT as a freeloader that enjoyed a big budget and an efficiency rate close to zero.
“In theory, this education center, financed by the state, is supposed to organize specialized trainings and professional education courses for people who work or are looking to work in tourism and hospitality. The reality, however, is that since 2012, the center has organized a total of three courses, with 47 people completing them,” Minister Năsui wrote.
Moreover, in 2019, the company had 20 employees, mostly in management and administration, with an average monthly salary of RON 19,500, which is about EUR 4,000. Annually, the state pays about RON 4.7 million, (EUR 966,000) for the salaries of these employees, for doing almost nothing, the minister added. He noted that the Control Corp of the ministry had already made some inquiries back in 2015 and even published a report on the education center that year on the ministry’s website.
“We should no longer tolerate that certain groups and organizations, for which the state budget is just a bottomless bag, live off the state like parasites,” Năsui emphasized in his comment.
“As the teachers at CNIT have not been disturbed by anyone in the past five years, the new minister has sent the Control Corp to pay them a visit again. It is yet to be seen whether the new minister will indeed have the audacity to put a lock on this center’s door,” foter.ro noted.
Title image: There is a lot of work to be done in this office, noted Minister of Economy Claudiu Năsui on his Facebook page. The image is an illustration.
Image source: economica.net
