In brief
- Three decisions published on the same day re-approve the cost estimates of three public investments, and the three estimates now add up to 653.2 million lei, against 382.5 million as first approved. The difference is 270.8 million lei, an increase of 70.8%. The works concerned are a student hall of residence for Politehnica in Bucharest, a new building for the Pneumology and Infectious Diseases departments at the Miercurea-Ciuc County Emergency Hospital, and an optics centre at Măgurele.
- Of the 270.8 million lei of extra cost, 255.5 million, that is 94.4%, falls on the state budget. The remaining 15.2 million is taken on by Harghita County, whose contribution rises almost sixfold. Politehnica University and the „Horia Hulubei” Institute still put in the same money as in 2021 and 2023, to the leu: 3.528 and 4.030 million lei.
- None of the three decisions says which act it replaces, and none repeals the earlier decision. The result is that for each of the three objectives two sets of approved indicators remain in force at the same time, with different figures.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 800 of 21 September 2026
Takes effect: from publication, 21 September 2026, since Government decisions enter into force on the date of publication unless they themselves provide a later date, and none of the three does
The word that matters in all three decisions is „re-approval”. A public investment objective starts out with a cost estimate approved by the Government, and the National Investment Company cannot spend beyond it. When costs exceed the approved values, the work stops until the Government approves new ones. That is what happened on 18 September 2026 with three objectives at once. Just as with the border crossing point at Sighetu Marmației, approved without any opening date, the decisions say what the work costs and who pays, but leave out of the text precisely the information by which one could judge whether the price is reasonable.
The three acts have the same structure: three short articles, the legal basis in Article 108 of the Constitution of Romania, republished, and in Article 42 paragraph (2) of Law no. 500/2002 on public finance, plus an annex with the figures. The holder in all three is the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration, the contractor is the National Investment Company „C.N.I.” S.A., and the beneficiaries after completion are the National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest, the administrative-territorial unit Harghita County, and the „Horia Hulubei” National Institute for Research and Development in Physics and Nuclear Engineering.
None of the three cites the act it replaces. We identified them from the name of the objective and from the sums that have not changed: Government Decision no. 866/2021 for the Politehnica hall of residence, Government Decision no. 631/2021 for the hospital at Miercurea-Ciuc, and Government Decision no. 491/2023, published in the Official Gazette of Romania no. 457 of 25 May 2023, for the centre at Măgurele. The comparison below is made against these initial approving acts. If there has been an intermediate re-approval in the meantime, it too goes unmentioned anywhere in the texts of 21 September 2026.
The student hall of residence at Splaiul Independenței no. 290. The cost estimate rises from 119.813 million lei to 150.834 million lei, that is plus 31.021 million lei and an increase of 25.9%. Construction and assembly rises faster, from 86.454 to 121.418 million lei, by 40.4%. The building, however, stays practically the same: the gross floor area goes from 17,818.68 to 17,820.00 square metres, an increase of 1.32 square metres. Only the area including balconies rises visibly, from 18,868.68 to 20,321.10 square metres, by 7.7%. In other words, almost the entire difference in price is price, not extra building. The whole increase of 31.021 million lei falls on the state budget: the university’s contribution stays at 3.528 million lei, a figure unchanged since 2021.
The Pneumology and Infectious Diseases building at Miercurea-Ciuc. Here the jump is the largest: from 71.014 million lei to 238.852 million lei, that is 3.36 times, an increase of 236.3%. Construction and assembly rises from 45.728 to 171.093 million lei, 3.74 times. The gross floor area rises from 6,170 to 10,135.55 square metres, by 64.3%, so the building really is larger, but not enough to explain the jump on its own: the cost per square metre doubles, from 11,510 to 23,566 lei. Harghita County’s contribution goes from 3.049 to 18.291 million lei, almost sixfold. According to the Government’s press release, the number of beds rises from 100 to 120, at Pneumology from 50 to 68 and at Infectious Diseases from 50 to 52. Those figures are not in the act.
The Centre for High-Power Optics at Măgurele. The cost estimate rises from 191.657 to 263.550 million lei, by 37.5%. Construction and assembly rises from 59.763 to 77.820 million lei, by 30.2%, but remains the smaller part: 70.5% of the value is equipment. The building has, in both acts, the same gross floor area, 4,640.00 square metres, with a single difference: in 2023 it was spread over two blocks, A and B, and now it appears over three, A, B and C, with the height regime written „P+E/P/P” instead of „P+1E/P”. The „Horia Hulubei” Institute puts in the same 4.030 million lei as in 2023, so its share falls from 2.1% to 1.5% of the investment.
What it changes in practice
Spending above the old ceilings is unblocked. Article 1 of each decision re-approves the indicators, and Article 2 ties the financing to the sums approved annually for this purpose in the budget of the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration. Without the new values, the National Investment Company could not commit expenditure beyond the 2021 and 2023 estimates.
The burden on the state budget rises by 255.5 million lei. The sum financed through the Ministry of Development for the three objectives goes from 371.877 to 627.387 million lei. It represents 94.4% of the total increase of 270.8 million lei.
A single co-financier takes on part of the effort. Harghita County goes from 3.049 to 18.291 million lei. The other two, the university and the institute, stay at the same nominal sums, 3.528 and 4.030 million lei, so their real contribution falls, because prices have risen in the meantime.
The annual payment pace is set, but only at two of the three. The annex for the hospital at Miercurea-Ciuc spreads the remaining works over four years, 12.435, 61.325, 73.531 and 88.796 million lei, so 68.8% of the money falls in the last two years. The annex for Măgurele spreads it over two years, 69.295 and 183.325 million lei. The annex for the hall of residence contains no schedule at all, which fits the declared duration of the remaining works, 3.3 months.
Responsibility for the use of the money stays where it was. Article 3, identical in all three, places it with the Ministry of Development, through the National Investment Company.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
The first change is one of price and is measured in two currencies. In lei, the three estimates rise by 70.8%. In euro, at the exchange rates written in the annexes themselves, the increases are smaller: the hall of residence goes from 25.072 to 29.713 million euro, by 18.5%; the centre at Măgurele from 38.978 to 50.021 million euro, by 28.3%; the hospital is 3.19 times more expensive in any case, from 14.569 to 46.454 million euro. The reference exchange rates rise from 4.7787 lei to the euro in 2020 to 5.2688 lei in May 2026, by 10.3% over the whole interval.
The second change is one of calendar, and it is more severe than the price. The hall of residence had, in the 2021 act, an execution period of 12 months; five years later, works worth 98.199 million lei remain to be carried out. The hospital had 30 months; it now has 42 months for the remaining works alone, and 2.765 million lei of the estimate has been spent so far, that is 1.2%. The centre at Măgurele had 19 months of execution in 2023; it now has 19 months again for the remaining works, after 10.930 million lei has been spent, that is 4.1%. Across all three, out of the 653.236 million lei approved, 586.906 million is still to be carried out, so 10.2% has been used.
The third change concerns the source of the prices. The annexes for the hospital and for the centre at Măgurele use prices as at 30 April 2026 and 6 May 2026, so from a few months ago. The annex for the hall of residence uses prices valid as at 31 July 2025, that is 417 days before the date of publication. The difference matters, because a cost estimate re-approved on prices more than a year old stands a good chance of being exceeded again before the work is finished.
The fourth change, the formal one, is that nothing has changed: the old acts have not been repealed. On that, see the errors section.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- It unblocks three sites halted by exceeded ceilings. Without re-approval, the 586.906 million lei of remaining works could not be lawfully committed, and the works would have stayed where they had got to.
- It puts the figures on the table, verifiably. The annexes contain the total value, the construction and assembly part, the breakdown by source, the euro exchange rate and the price date, so anyone can redo the calculation and compare it with the old act.
- It recognises that an objective can grow in scope, not only in price. At Miercurea-Ciuc the gross floor area rises by 64.3%, and the Government’s press release shows 20 more beds, so part of the money buys hospital, not inflation.
- It requires an annual schedule where the work runs over years. The annexes for the hospital and for the centre at Măgurele spread the remaining works over years, which makes the spending predictable for the state budget and for the county budget.
- It brings a real co-financier into the equation. Harghita County takes on six times more than in 2021, the only one of the three local partners to increase its share.
What remains a problem
- They do not say what they replace. A reader who wants to find out how much more expensive the work has become has to look up the old act unaided, because none of the three decisions names it.
- They do not contain the unit by which the price is judged. A hall of residence is measured in accommodation places, a hospital in beds. No annex gives them, so the only indicator left is the square metre, and the number of beds appears only in the Government’s press release.
- They leave local contributions frozen. Politehnica University puts in the same 3.528 million lei as in 2021, and the „Horia Hulubei” Institute the same 4.030 million lei as in 2023, even though the estimates have risen by 25.9% and 37.5%.
- They re-approve the hall of residence on prices 417 days old. The other two use prices from April and May 2026, which makes the difference all the more visible.
- They explain nothing. A re-approval decision is the moment at which the text of the act could say why the work has become 3.36 times more expensive. The reasons appear in the explanatory memorandum and in the press release, not in the Official Gazette of Romania, where only the figures remain.
- The declared duration of the remaining works at the hall of residence, 3.3 months for 98.199 million lei, means 29.757 million lei a month, 5.3 times more than the monthly pace at the Miercurea-Ciuc hospital and 2.2 times more than at Măgurele. The act offers nothing from which to see how that pace is to be sustained.
Practical advice
- When reading a re-approval decision, go straight to the annex. The articles in the body of the act are the same in all of them, and the only information that changes from one act to another is in the table of indicators.
- Look for the price date and the euro exchange rate, written in brackets under the table. An estimate in prices from more than a year ago says something different from one in prices from four months ago, even if the sum looks the same.
- Compare the total value and the construction and assembly part separately. At Măgurele the construction is only 29.5% of the estimate, the rest being equipment, so a rise in the total value may mean more expensive equipment rather than more expensive works.
- To find out how much more expensive an objective has become, look up the old act by the exact name of the objective, which is kept between re-approvals. For the three here, the acts are Government Decision no. 866/2021, Government Decision no. 631/2021 and Government Decision no. 491/2023.
- Check whether the local co-financier’s sums have changed. If they have stayed the same in absolute figures while the estimate has risen, the entire increase has been absorbed by the state budget.
- If you are following a particular site, ask the National Investment Company in writing for the physical and the financial stage. The difference between the total value and the value of the remaining works, both written in the annex, tells you how much has been spent so far: 34.9% at the hall of residence, 1.2% at the hospital, 4.1% at Măgurele.
- Read the schedule as a payment calendar, not as a works calendar. At the Miercurea-Ciuc hospital, 68.8% of the money is programmed in the third and fourth years, which means the real budgetary pressure comes late.
Frequently asked questions
What does re-approval of technical and economic indicators mean?
By how much has each of the three objectives become more expensive?
Over how many years did these increases occur?
What does a square metre cost at each of them?
How many accommodation places does the hall of residence have and how many beds does the hospital building have?
Who pays for the increase?
When will the works be finished?
From when do the three decisions take effect?
Errors and inconsistencies in the published text
- All three decisions re-approve indicators without repealing the acts that had approved them, so that two different cost estimates remain in force for each objective. Government Decision no. 740/2026 has three articles, Government Decision no. 741/2026 has three and Government Decision no. 742/2026 has three. None of them repeals anything, and the preamble of each invokes only Article 108 of the Constitution of Romania, republished, and Article 42 paragraph (2) of Law no. 500/2002. For the centre at Măgurele, Government Decision no. 491/2023, published in the Official Gazette of Romania no. 457 of 25 May 2023, had approved 191.657 million lei, while Government Decision no. 742/2026 approves 263.550 million lei for the same objective, at the same address and with the same gross floor area. Both acts are in force, and the legislative portal records no repeal of the 2023 one. Article 64 paragraph (1) of Law no. 24/2000 on legislative drafting rules provides that provisions contrary to a new regulation of the same rank must be repealed. The model text exists: Government Decision no. 724/2016, also a re-approval of indicators, contains an Article 4 that expressly repeals the earlier approving decision, identified by number and by the number of the Official Gazette of Romania. The practical consequence is not theoretical: the authorising officer has, for the same work, two ceilings approved by acts of the same rank, and the text of the new decision does not establish which of them applies.
Editorial analysis
Re-approving a cost estimate is not, in itself, a bad thing. A work that takes five years goes through changes in prices, in technical standards and in the rate of value added tax, and the alternative to re-approval is a halted site. The three decisions do their job: they put public, verifiable figures on the table, with the price date and the euro exchange rate written in black and white, and they break the sum down by source. The problem is not their adoption but what cannot be learned from them.
The first observation becomes visible only once you open the old acts, because the new decisions do not name them. The total increase of 270.8 million lei moves almost entirely into a single pocket instead of being shared between the partners: 255.5 million lei, that is 94.4%, falls on the state budget. Politehnica University puts in the same 3.528 million lei as in 2021, and the „Horia Hulubei” Institute the same 4.030 million lei as in 2023. These are not rounded sums that happen to match: they are the same figures, to the thousand lei. The effect is that the institute’s share in the Măgurele investment falls from 2.1% to 1.5% without any explicit decision, simply because the denominator has grown. The only co-financier that rises is Harghita County, almost sixfold, from 3.049 to 18.291 million lei, that is precisely the smallest local budget of the three.
The second observation concerns Măgurele and is visible only by placing the two annexes side by side. The gross floor area is identical, 4,640.00 square metres, but in 2023 it was spread over blocks A and B, and now it appears over blocks A, B and C. A third block has appeared without a single extra square metre, and the height regime has been rewritten from „P+1E/P” to „P+E/P/P”. It may be a division of the same area, it may be something else; the act does not say, and the technical and economic indicators are exactly the place where it should. In the same annex, the duration of the remaining works is 19 months, that is exactly the total execution period approved in 2023, after three years in which 10.930 million lei has been spent, that is 4.1% of the estimate.
The third observation concerns the pace and is obtained by dividing the remaining works by the declared duration. At the hall of residence that gives 29.757 million lei a month, at Măgurele 13.296, at the Miercurea-Ciuc hospital 5.621. The hall of residence would therefore consume 5.3 times more per month than the hospital and 2.2 times more than the research centre, over an interval of 3.3 months, in a building with a height regime of Ds+P+10E. It is the figure that stands out most in the whole package and the only one the act supports with nothing at all. Also at the hall of residence, the comparison with 2021 shows that the gross floor area has grown by 1.32 square metres while the estimate has grown by 25.9%: here no extra building was bought, the same building was paid for at a higher price.
What should be changed
- Add to each re-approval decision an article that expressly repeals the act replaced, by number and by the number of the Official Gazette of Romania. That is what Article 64 paragraph (1) of Law no. 24/2000 requires and what Government Decision no. 724/2016, for instance, does. The immediate effect: a single cost estimate remains in force for each objective, and the reader learns from a single sentence what has been replaced.
- Enter in the annex the capacity in the unit proper to the objective: accommodation places for the hall of residence, beds for the hospital, workstations for the laboratory. The square metre says nothing about usefulness. With the number of beds in the act, anyone could calculate the 1.99 million lei per bed at Miercurea-Ciuc without hunting for the Government’s press release.
- Write in the annex, on one line, the previously approved value and the difference. It costs one table row and spares every reader an hour of searching through the archive of the Official Gazette of Romania. It would make visible, at publication, that an objective has become 3.36 times more expensive.
- Do not re-approve a cost estimate on prices more than a year old. The hall of residence is re-approved on prices valid as at 31 July 2025, that is 417 days before publication, while the other two use prices from April and May 2026. An old estimate stands every chance of requiring another re-approval before handover.
- Add the rate of value added tax used in the calculation. Government Decision no. 631/2021 stated „including VAT 19%”. The three acts of 21 September 2026 state only „including VAT”. Without the rate, the real increase cannot be separated from the tax effect, and any comparison between two estimates becomes approximate.
- Tie the duration of the remaining works to a calendar date. „42 months” is not a deadline but a duration without a starting point. A line such as „the period runs from the date of entry into force of this decision” would turn the indicator into a verifiable benchmark and would allow anyone to see, at the right moment, whether it has been met.
Original text of the legal act
The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.
The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania
Official Gazette of Romania no. 800 of 21 September 2026 16 pages PDF, 182 KB the act starts on page 12
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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.