Over EUR 4.2 bn EU funds for human resources are without a manager. HotNews.ro reports that Labour Minister Mihai Seitan has said that the legal interim term of the Director of the HR Development Operation Programme, Cristina Iova, had expired on February 5 and that the secretary of state who should be managing the field had not been appointed.

The minister said that a competition would nevertheless be held for the selection of a programme director. In the meantime, beneficiaries and consultants who have already submitted projects or whose projects are already receiving funding within the HR Development Programme keep complaining about system issues. About two weeks ago, over 100 non-profit organisations, employers’ organisations and trade unions wrote a public letter to the prime minister, where they were demanding measures ‘to curb bureaucracy in the evaluation of funding applications, signing of agreements and in securing a financial flow needed for the implementation of projects in progress’, as well as an urgent solution to the extremely serious situation in which management authorities were in terms of staffing.