The Romanian government would like to make public the controversial contract signed in 2004 with US company Bechtel for the construction of the Brasov-Bors [Transilvania] motorway, but it is unable to find the document, the minister of large infrastructure projects, Dan Sova, announced last week.

It was one of the latest contracts signed in 2004 by the leftist cabinet of PM Adrian Nastase. Leftists came again at rule last year and have cancelled the contract after the project has lingered amid ambiguous clauses in the contract and scarce public financing.

Under the contract, Romania has paid EUR 1.4bn for the construction of 52km. Initially, the 415-km motorway was supposed to cost some EUR 2.4bn.

It remains highly unclear how was the government able to cancel the contract a couple of months earlier without having the original draft of the contract, the daily comments. It is even more unclear how has the government lost a classified document that was supposed to be under the protection of the intelligence agencies. The daily also highlights inconsistencies in the government statements over the past weeks in regard to this contract.