Phased acceptance of public construction sites gets its form: what is left unfinished is written down as a percentage

The law that allows almost finished public construction sites to be paid for now has, as of 18 August, the form with which acceptance is actually carried out. The Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration (MDLPA) approved, through Order no. 930/2026, the model handover report required by Law no. 141/2026 on accelerating public investment in construction. The order has three articles and one annex, and the annex is the form itself, with three lists attached to it.

What sets this apart from an ordinary form is that it does not merely record that the works are finished. It splits the site in two: essential works, which are accepted and paid for now, and auxiliary works, for which acceptance is suspended. Every decision the law asked the commission to take becomes, in the form, a box that somebody signs off on.

Article 2 of the order states that the model is used by contracting authorities, investors, acceptance commissions and the other participants, for all public investments falling within the scope of the law. In other words, wherever the phased acceptance mechanism is used, this is the document that has to be drawn up.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is that the split between essential and auxiliary works is no longer an internal discussion. At point 1, the form asks for the number and date of the technical classification note, the names of the general designer, of the specialist designers, of the certified project verifier, of the contractor and of the site supervisor who took part in drawing it up, plus the conclusion of the classification. The technical note was already provided for by the law; the form turns it into an entry without which the report cannot be completed.

The second effect is the 5% cap, which becomes a calculation set down in writing. At point 8, below the table of suspended auxiliary works, a note asks for the percentage those works represent out of the value of the contract and refers to Article 4 paragraph (3) letter d) and Article 8 paragraph (2) letter d) of the law. The note is not neutral: it ends with the wording „falling within the cap of no more than 5%”, so the statement of compliance is printed in advance. The form has no entry for exceeding the cap, so a percentage higher than 5 produces a document that contradicts itself on the same page.

The third effect concerns deadlines. The same point 8 contains a table in which every suspended phase of the works is given the reason for the suspension and a deadline expressed in days from the date the report is signed, with the limit of 120 days laid down by Article 8 paragraph (3). Deadlines are no longer global, they are set work by work.

The fourth effect is the most important one for anyone following whether a building may be used or not. Point 12 makes the commission tick one of three options: acceptance with suspension of the auxiliary works and entry into service, acceptance with suspension solely for the purpose of certifying and paying for the works, in which case the form states explicitly that the building cannot be brought into service or used until the suspended works are finished and the complementary report is issued, or refusal of acceptance. The second option refers to Article 9 paragraph (2) of the law and is the one that separates payment from use.

The fifth effect is the signature of responsibility. Point 16 contains a declaration by which the members of the commission, the designer, the contractor and the site supervisor state that they have checked the classification of the works against the reality on the ground and that they are aware that signing documents which do not reflect the works as executed entails disciplinary, administrative, civil or criminal liability. It is the text of Article 6 of the law, moved to sit directly above the place where signatures go.

The form also settles the problem that lay behind the law in the first place, the electricity connection. Point 6.8 asks for a tick showing whether the permanent connection is finished or not, together with the stage the procedures have reached, and for a description of the temporary technical solution adopted for safe operation, with a reference to Article 3 letter e) of the law.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Until now the phased acceptance mechanism existed in the law but had no document of its own. Law no. 141/2026 on the application of measures to accelerate the implementation of public investment in construction has been in force since 16 July 2026 and works by way of derogation from the general regime governing the acceptance of construction works, a wording the law itself uses. A derogation without a form means that every acceptance commission would have adapted the usual model on its own, with the risk that two town halls would take a different view of what counts as an auxiliary work.

Speeding up execution does not solve the cost problem: three public investments re-approved in September 2026 reached 653 million lei, 271 million above the original estimates.

The way the role of the State Inspectorate for Constructions (ISC) is presented has changed as well. At point 4 the form carries a note stating that participation by the ISC is not compulsory for the acceptance of essential works, with a reference to Article 7 paragraph (6) letter a) of the law, while point 14 repeats that participation by the inspectorate and the issuing of the certificate on the legally due contributions take place once all the works are finished and the suspension is lifted. The law already provided for this, but it now appears in the document the commission reads on the day of acceptance.

What has not changed deserves to be said just as plainly. The order approves a form, not the technical implementing instructions. Article 18 of Law no. 141/2026 allows the line ministries running financing programmes from the State budget or from sources other than the National Recovery and Resilience Plan to draw up and approve technical instructions within no more than 90 days of the entry into force of the law, that is, by 14 October 2026. In their absence, the law does not apply to investments financed from European funds, from the State budget, from local budgets or from other lawfully constituted sources, that is, to all those listed in Article 2 apart from the ones under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Those instructions must set out at least the procedure for classifying the works, the minimum content of the technical note, the composition and powers of the commissions, the procedure for suspending and resuming acceptance and the way the works are recorded in technical, financial and tax terms. Order no. 930/2026 does not invoke Article 18 in its preamble, which rests on the law as a whole and on the decision organising the ministry, and it contains none of those five elements. It is a form, not a procedure.

Finally, the practical calendar has changed. The law entered into force on 16 July, the order was signed on 17 August, for the minister, by a state secretary, and published on 18 August, so it took roughly a month for the mechanism to receive the document with which it is applied. For investments under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, where the law applies without waiting for instructions, this was the missing piece.

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