Colterm case: DNA investigates 68 million lei, two courts confirm irregularities by Fritz administration
The National Anticorruption Directorate is investigating the alleged misappropriation of nearly 68 million lei by the Fritz administration through the Timișoara district heating company Colterm. The Court of Accounts, ANAF, and two courts have confirmed violations of the law.
DNA opens case in Colterm matter: 68 million lei under investigation
According to Jurnalul.ro, the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) has opened an in rem case and is investigating the alleged misappropriation of nearly 68 million lei by the administration led by Dominic Fritz, former mayor of Timișoara and USR party leader. The money had been transferred from the Ministry of Development to the Timișoara district heating company Colterm to cover price differences on natural gas in the period November 2021 – March 2022. Instead of being transferred directly to the company as a subsidy, these funds were used to pay outstanding invoices owed by the municipality to Colterm.
Fritz responded immediately on Facebook, stating: "now they come after my team as well. It appears that a criminal case is in progress at DNA for several people from Timișoara City Hall, over a five-year-old accounting dispute with Colterm, dressed up in the word 'misappropriation'. But just like many political cases that are fashionable now, nobody stole any money". The USR party establishment supported this line of defence, characterising the investigation as a political action.
USR Vice Mayor Lațcău attacks DNA, ignores findings of supervisory institutions
USR Vice Mayor Ruben Lațcău also posted a message on Facebook, accusing "a group organised around Colterm for over a decade" of circling the company, allegedly pursuing the company's land worth tens of millions of euros. He claimed that "some state institutions recite old sovereigntist theses — that the Municipality is damaging its own district heating company".
However, Lațcău did not mention that, starting from 2022, two public supervisory institutions and two courts have confirmed that Timișoara City Hall acted in breach of the law — precisely the facts now under the attention of DNA Timișoara.
Court of Accounts: subsidy was misappropriated, VAT applied unlawfully
Romania's Court of Accounts conducted an audit in 2022 and found that the Fritz administration had misappropriated the funds received from the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration. The auditors established that "for these sums the CLT Colterm SA operator was not required to issue invoices with VAT". The City Hall had refused to transfer the money within three days maximum, as required by law, instead requesting invoices with VAT for district heating services.
The official finding of the auditors was that the total subsidy value of 67,840,130 lei was reduced by the equivalent of the value added tax, through the procedure applied by the municipality. Furthermore, the money was not used exclusively to cover the costs of acquiring natural gas, which represented a violation of a law, an emergency ordinance, five orders from the Ministry of Development, and an order from the Ministry of Finance.
ANAF contradicts position of Fritz administration
The Ministry of Finance confirmed the findings of the Court of Accounts. The General Directorate of Taxpayer Assistance within ANAF, through address no. 1594 of 19.08.2022, clarified that "these subsidies are not included in the basis for calculating value added tax, since they are subsidies granted to cover certain expenses, as specified in point 30 paragraph (2) of the Methodological Rules implementing art. 269 paragraph (1) of the Tax Code".
The Fritz administration had attempted to defend itself by invoking another ANAF address, but this concerned the regime of accounts, not payments — a distinction that the tax authority explicitly clarified.
Timiș Court and Court of Appeal reject City Hall's appeals
Timișoara City Hall challenged in court the report of the Court of Accounts, including the findings regarding the misappropriation of nearly 68 million lei. Among the arguments put forward by the Fritz administration before Timiș Court was the claim that the value of thermal energy supplied and billed to the public is directly linked to the value of the subsidy granted from the local budget, which would include sums received from the Ministry.
Timiș Court entirely rejected the municipality's action, through decision 227 of 14 March 2023. The court found that the identified deviations "do not concern the method of recording subsidies received from the MDLPA budget under Law no. 259/2021, but the manner in which these were operated and their destination changed, this being incorrectly established to cover the equivalent of the subsidy granted from the local budget relating to the quantity of thermal energy delivered to the public".
The City Hall lodged an appeal, but Timișoara Court of Appeal upheld the first instance decision. Through judgment of 20 November 2024, the appeal court found that the municipality presented no new argument proving the illegality of what the court had established, merely repeating the reasoning from the first instance. The appeal was dismissed, the decision becoming final.
DNA investigation, in the context of a series of judicial and administrative confirmations
The in rem case opened by DNA Timișoara thus comes after four institutions — the Court of Accounts, ANAF, Timiș Court, and Timișoara Court of Appeal — have confirmed, through independent mechanisms, that the manner in which the Fritz administration managed the Colterm subsidy constituted a breach of legality. The criminal investigation is currently at the investigation stage, with no person having been formally charged as yet.
Source: Jurnalul.ro