File! CNAIR awarded a contract of approximately 160 million euros for the A3-Transylvania Highway to the company Precon, secretly led by the dubious businessman Beniamin Rus. One year ago, for the exact same 28 km section, CNAIR terminated the contract with Selina, also led by Beniamin Rus, due to non-performance of the works!

CNAIR has awarded a contract of approximately 160 million euros for the A3-Transylvania highway to Precon. The construction of the Transylvania highway is at a standstill! Despite approximately 20 years passing since the start of the initial works, the A3-Transylvania highway is far from completion due to the numerous conflicts of interest that the winning companies have had over time in executing the contracts for the Chiribiș – Biharia section.

On June 8th, CNAIR announced that the Precon – Citadina Consortium was selected as the winner of the tender for completing the works on the Chiribiș – Biharia section of the A3 Transylvania Highway. The tender for this section of the A3-Transylvania highway was launched in August 2022, after CNAIR terminated the contract signed in 2020 with the Selina group, controlled by the controversial businessman Beniamin Rus, for non-performance of the works.

The Precon – Citadina Consortium managed to secure the contract initially estimated by authorities at a value of 877.77 million lei after submitting an offer of 785.21 million lei (excluding VAT), much lower than the bid of 845.46 million lei by international company Strabag or the bid of 814.127 million lei by local leader Erbașu SA.

In essence, Precon used the same method that the Selina group employed three years ago when it managed to obtain the contract that Beniamin Rus lost last year.

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On June 12, 2020, Trameco, Drum Asfalt, and Drumuri Bihor, all part of the Selina group owned by businessman Beniamin Rus, signed a contract with CNAIR for the 28.55 km section of the Transylvania Highway. According to the contract, the section was to be designed within 6 months and completed within one and a half years for 326 million lei plus VAT. Although in 2017, CNAIR estimated the value of this contract at 456 million lei, three years later, the Selina group managed to win the tender by grossly undervaluing the necessary works and offering only 72% of the price.

After signing the contract with the state, Trameco, Drum Asfalt, and Drumuri Bihor began citing major problems in the field and differences compared to CNAIR’s expertise, demanding an additional amount of 130 million lei, thus increasing the value of the contract to the initially estimated 456 million lei.

From May 2020 to August 2022, Trameco and the other two companies „managed” to construct only 0.5% of the highway, which prompted representatives from CNAIR to terminate the contract with the Selina group.

The measure was challenged in court by the Selina group, which, after half a year of legal proceedings, definitively lost the contract and received a ban on participating in public tenders for 3 years. Additionally, the group of companies owned by Beniamin Rus was required to pay a penalty of nearly 1 million euros.

Beniamin Rus couldn’t accept the fact that he lost the contract for completing the works on the Chiribiș – Biharia section, and with the help of the company Precon, he eventually managed to regain his „golden goose.”

Beniamin Rus, the shadow controller of Precon Transilvania
Precon Transilvania is a relatively new company established in 2019, engaged in road and highway construction works. On paper, the company recently designated to complete the works on the Chiribiș – Biharia section is owned by businessman Ioan Eugen Hudriciu. However, in reality, it is controlled by the entrepreneur Beniamin Rus.

Although there have been rumors in the press about a connection between Precon and Beniamin Rus, nobody knew the actual details. România TV.net has discovered that the link between Rus and the apartment company that managed to defeat the giants Strabag and Erbașu and secure the contract for the A3-Transylvania highway is Ioan Eugen Hudriciu himself, who previously held the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors at Trameco, part of the Selina group.

Now, the state, after taking the approximately 160 million euro contract away from Beniamin Rus last year, has handed it back to him on a silver platter. However, Beniamin Rus is a controversial figure, accused in 2016 by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) of money laundering and incitement to abuse of office against public interests.

Specifically, Beniamin Rus, the former Vice President of the Oradea County Council, Alexandru Kiss, and a few other accomplices conceived and implemented a complex financial mechanism involving the Selina and Trameco companies, as well as a company from the USA. Through this mechanism, between 2005 and 2006, approximately 600,000 euros were disguised as payments made by Selina for machinery imported by Trameco from German and Dutch firms, facilitated by the US company controlled by the suspect Bojtor Vilmos-Laszlo, one of Rus’s accomplices. Even though the companies within the Selina group directly negotiated with the German and Dutch suppliers, the purchase of the machinery was intermediated by the shell company in Washington at exorbitant prices.

„The approximately 600,000 euros laundered through the aforementioned operations represent undue benefits that Rus Beniamin, as the owner and administrator of the Selina Oradea group of companies, paid to the suspect Kiss Alexandru-Iosif-Francisc (President of the Bihor County Council at the time of the offenses) in order for him to favor the Selina company in the procedures conducted by the Bihor County Council for the sale of lands in the municipality of Oradea. Through the defective performance of his official duties, the suspect Kiss Alexandru-Iosif-Francisc caused damage to the Bihor County Council of approximately 8.6 million euros,” according to a statement from the DNA.

Despite these criminal acts, the Oradea Tribunal decided on March 23, 2023, to acquit Beniamin Rus and Alexandru Kiss, invoking a legal article that stipulates that „the act is not provided for by criminal law or has not been committed with the required guilt as prescribed by law.” Thus, Beniamin Rus and the Selina group emerged from this whole story as clean as a tear, and in the meantime, the controversial businessman will resume his activities on the A3-Timișoara highway through Precon, right where he left off.