Internet eats into black market

The international freight road transport licenses will be electronically assigned on www.e-licitatie.ro website as of mid this month, in an attempt to curb corruption down to zero, carriers representatives said. The black market (i.e. the traffic in influence, bribe for getting transport licenses, as well as the trade in such documents) is estimated to some $10-$12 million, according to the officials of the think tank created by the road carrier associations to work with the authorities. The licenses used to be issued by the Romanian Road Authority (ARR) until now. ARR issues four types of documents: multiple international transport licenses (CEMT) – annual subscriptions that allow the carrier to operate certain routes without having to secure transit permits first, permits to transit EU countries, multiple licenses with France and bilateral licenses with certain states in the European Community. Romania gets about 1,050 CEMT licenses and about 7,000 transit permits a year. ZF