Bucharest Mayor Ciprian Ciucu warned on Tuesday that the Capital City Hall (PMB) risks 'bankruptcy', noting that two thirds of the municipality's budget is absorbed by subsidies for public transport and district heating.

'This city hall will end up bankrupt. A third of our budget goes to heating subsidies. If you add operating costs and what the population pays, we're in an absurd situation,' Ciucu told the General Council meeting. He said he will present a 'very, very serious' proposal later this summer or in early autumn regarding the future of the city's heating system, stressing that without a centralised heat supply system (SACET) and other structural measures, 'the city will no longer have money for hospitals, parks or public transport'.

Ciucu said he wants a cross-party discussion on Bucharest power and heat company ELCEN and SACET, warning that district heating remains 'a hole that grows year after year'. He pointed to the RON 3.5-billion historic RADET debt, which he said could trigger insolvency if a court orders payment, and criticised Termoenergetica for repeating RADET's mistakes. He also argued that the calculating mechanism of the Inter-community Development Association (ADI) has driven up prices for heat supply and other services.

Public transport, the mayor said, is another 'huge hole', reproaching Bucharest Transportation Company (STB) general manager Andrei Dinculescu Bighea and the unions delaying the implementation of the company's recovery plan.

'If they don't take major steps, I'll try to take them myself, with all the political risks: strikes, insults, press pressure. Things are terrible at STB, terrible at ADI, terrible in Bucharest's public transport,' he said, adding he was reluctant to again propose a fare increase.

Ciucu stressed that two thirds of the City Hall's budget goes to subsidies for STB and Termoenergetica and announced he will publish detailed spending figures.

'My patience is running out. I will lay everything out: how much STB's maintenance, repair, and manufacturing plant costs me, how much the health centre costs, how much the leisure house in Predeal costs, the sports club, the canteen that should be making money - millions upon millions every year,' he said.

He also questioned the audit carried out by ADI at STB, pointing to high costs for the director's office and a health centre losing 4 - 5 million RON annually. He said that rising expenses have made public transport unsustainable, noting: 'STB costs us twice as much today as the former RATB used to. Just look at the numbers.'

The remarks came as the General Council took note of the agreement in principle on transferring the Energy Ministry's stake in ELCEN to the municipality, a step toward establishing a unified public district-heating service. Ciucu insisted PMB should take over ELCEN only if funding for its modernisation projects is guaranteed.

He also criticised the slow pace of those projects, saying ELCEN appears to be 'slacking around'.

'Years have passed since the Energy Minister put 5 billion into the Modernisation Fund. It's a hefty sum, but I really don't know what ELCEN is doing,' he concluded. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Irinela Visan; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)