The public clash between Buzău mayor Constantin Toma and Investments and European Projects Minister Mihai Ghigiu raises a question more useful than their political accusations: where is the documentary trail for the nearly €80 million PNRR project intended to renovate and reinforce apartment buildings?
After visiting Buzău on Saturday, Ghigiu said the municipality had lost the funding and argued that worksites should already have opened. He attributed the situation to insufficient administrative involvement. On Sunday, Toma rejected that account, saying that bureaucracy, procurement procedures, delays and unrealistic PNRR deadlines had made it impossible to keep the works within the programme’s timetable. The mayor also accused the minister of turning the visit into a political attack.
Both accounts concern the same stake: funding described as nearly €80 million for upgrading apartment blocks in the city. Yet they offer incompatible explanations. Ghigiu places the cause with local administration. Toma argues that the municipality did not control every stage after procurement began and that procedural bottlenecks became decisive.
The editorial judgment is that this dispute should not be settled by the political weight of either speaker. If the city administration missed steps it controlled, the project schedule, contracts and official correspondence should show that. If deadlines, challenges or procedures stopped the project despite action by City Hall, the same records should establish where the blockage occurred.
Toma’s argument deserves consideration because public procurement and financing deadlines can limit a municipality’s control. But it does not by itself answer whether earlier administrative steps were adequate. Equally, Ghigiu’s claim of insufficient involvement remains a political allegation until it is tied to specific milestones and project records.
For residents of the affected buildings, the issue matters beyond a PSD internal quarrel: it concerns what happened to a public investment announced for their homes. City Hall and the ministry should publish the procurement timeline, documents on the funding’s status, and the official explanation for the unused sum. Without that record, the dispute generates headlines rather than public accountability.
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Independent editorial content. WUA is not affiliated with any political party. 2026-11-15