The Ministry of Finance has launched an investigation at the county level regarding the non-transfer of funds required for the award of merit, merit, study and social assistance scholarships to pre-university students.

In fact, the institution’s reaction came after the material of edupedu.ro, in which it is written that there are problems with their payment, although the statutory deadline is the 15th of the month.

The Minister of Finance says that the State Budget Law 317/2021 for 2022 allocated 1.031 billion lei for the payment of these scholarships, the amount increased by another 300 million lei after the budget adjustment.

“Funds were allocated from VAT amounts and transferred to the accounts of local treasuries, provided to administrative-territorial units for withdrawal on the basis of a request. Therefore, the money is not in the Ministry of Finance, it can be attracted directly by UAO from local divisions of the Treasury,” the institution says.

According to the Ministry, the amounts approved by the laws on the annual budget and the laws on adjustment are at the disposal of the local state administration bodies after their approval in their own budgets and the completion of the steps provided by law for the use of funds. .

The use of amounts separated from value added tax by local public administration bodies is carried out by requesting the provision of appropriate amounts to the State Treasury division to which they are assigned.

“In addition to what is specified in HG 1138/14.09.2022, Article 1. Clause 2 Scholarships are awarded at the expense of the local budgets of administrative-territorial units (territorial units), which include pre-university education institutions, and in the amounts in terms of value-added tax, which are annually approved by the law on the state budget for these purposes. in the notification of the Ministry of Finance.

As a result of the articles published in the press, the Ministry of Finance launched an investigation at the county level to establish a plan and implementation of the amounts broken down by VAT and their allocation at the UAT level, in order to quickly and accurately find out the blockage and correct the situation.

“However, despite the flow of money from central to local and possible blockages, we want to assure both concerned parents and students that the Ministry of Finance is doing everything in its power to resolve this as soon as possible,” the Ministry of Finance said. .