Open letter from SC METRON SERV SRL to the Ministry of Finance management: THE STATE INSTITUTION IN THE COURT OF THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND THE BOMBING OF ROMANIAN CABs

This article is intended as an open letter to the management of the Ministry of Finance and, at the same time, gives the possibility to the control bodies (Prime Minister’s Control Corps, police, prosecutor’s office) to report ex officio on serious violations of the legal rules by the persons in the management of the ONJN and other persons in the Supervisory Committee. For the issues raised there is evidence, documents and records that can be made available to those concerned.

METRON SERV

The management of the National Gambling Office disregards the legal provisions governing the field and tramples underfoot the Romanian Conformity Assessment Bodies that ensure the metrological verification of the famous “slot machines”. The abuses of all kinds by the management of the Office began with the issuance of a Presidential Order (Order 86) favoring foreign-registered firms to the detriment of Romanian firms, which was followed by the suspension of Class II licenses in September 2021 (in the midst of the pandemic the three Romanian firms ran out of revenue and sent their employees on technical unemployment for more than a month). Through the steps taken, the CABs whose activity was improperly stopped (for the first time in the history of the Office, 3 licenses were suspended in a single meeting of the Supervisory Committee), proved that the suspension was an illegal measure applied by the management in a discretionary manner, which led to the revocation of the administrative act in October 2021 and allowing the activity to continue.

Of course, the companies concerned have addressed all the competent bodies with addresses, memos, requests including criminal complaints to NAD (which seem to have been “just lying” for almost two years), but the competent institutions have not found the necessary time to verify and ascertain whether the issues raised are confirmed or not, which has given courage to those in charge of the Office to go ahead with flagrant abuses. A latest court ruling (from April 2023) certifies that the suspension of the 3 CABs was unlawful, dismissing the action of a third party who requested the annulment of the Supervisory Committee’s decision and the interruption of the activity of the Romanian companies.

Since at the first attempt they failed to close the three Romanian companies, the management of the Office simply invented a complementary sanction (non-existent in the 4 normative acts regulating gambling in our country), which in February this year it applied to one of the three companies, thus forcing it to stop its activity. Complaints, addresses and memos were sent to all the institutions that are related to the field and that have powers of verification, but the situation remained as decided by the Management of the Office – our  company, SC METRON SERV SRL, closed its activity for a month. The unbelievable fact is that, following the preliminary complaint made (according to the administrative procedure), the court set the trial date (which should have been in emergency procedure) one day after the 30 days of suspension of activity had expired, and the Supervisory Committee of the ONJN decided (also one day after the expiry of the sentence imposed – in the meeting of 11. 04.2023), by vote (2 persons voted in favour and 6 persons abstained from voting – they probably realized that the decision taken earlier was out of the law) to maintain the imposed penalty, even though the legal rule stipulates that the decisions of the Committee are taken by half plus one of the number of members present (art. 3 of the Rules of Procedure of the Supervisory Committee – GD 298/2013). A simple mathematical calculation shows that to uphold the previous decision at least 5 people had to vote for it, but what does it matter what the law and the mathematics say, the decision was taken this time in flagrant violation of the law and the rules, discretionary, only by the vote of the Vice-Chairman and another member of the Committee (2 out of 8 people present at the meeting), who, by the way, is apparently no longer a representative of the Ministry of Transport since 2020, but who attends the meetings of the Supervisory Committee and receives, illegally we believe, the corresponding sums from the ONJN (maybe someone will take action on this point).

And to make the mockery complete, the Office informs us that in fact “the Supervisory Committee meeting of 11.04.2023 did not adopt a decision on the settlement of the preliminary complaint”, i.e. in the meeting one thing and in the communication address another, and the matter was still reintroduced on the agenda of the meeting of 25.04.2023, under item 68, where it was probably postponed again and again until who knows?

Also in this note, it should be specified that, for almost 2 years, the Management of the Office effectively refuses (without any justification and without legal basis) to endorse the accreditation scheme of the CABs, drawn up by the National Accreditation Body – RENAR according to the provisions of the European regulation (EC Regulation 765/2008 – a rule of mandatory law for the Romanian state) governing the field. Our company, SC METRON SERV SRL, and the other Romanian companies licensed OEC class II, from July this year we will no longer be able to operate in this market of approximately 6 million euros annually.

A second Romanian company has, however, obtained voluntary accreditation from RENAR in the field of gambling for a company in the group and submitted to the Office (according to legal provisions and customs) the complete documentation to obtain the class II license for CABs on March 13. As the licensing file was complete, the Office did not request additional documents. The company submitted the documentation 9 working days before the meeting of the Supervisory Committee (as required by the rules), fulfilled all the formal and substantive requirements, but the Director of Authorizations (who draws up the agenda) together with the Vice-Chairman (who approves the agenda in advance) did not agree to introduce it at either of the two consecutive meetings of the Committee (i.e. neither on 30 March nor on 11 April), exceeding the 30 days within which a response must be communicated. Further proof that Romanian companies (accused of not having gambling competences – even if they have been licensed by the Office) are simply prevented from operating. The Office’s refusal to endorse the RENAR Scheme, together with the non-granting of Class II licenses for CABs to other Romanian companies (because during this 2-year period other files – considered incomplete – were rejected by the Authorization Directorate) proves the bad faith of those who run the ONJN.

A loss of 20 million lei to the consolidated budget has just been found, but the Control Corps of the Ministry of Finance, under whose nose the events reported in the last two months have happened (the Corps has been inspecting the ONJN throughout this period), did not notice the practice of suspending licenses applied chaotically and discretionary by the Management of the Office and the Supervisory Committee, which ordered the revocation of licenses for gambling operators who had debts of more than 30 days to the state budget. It can be easily observed (on the ONJN website) that for several months now class I licenses have been suspended, and there are many situations in which companies have a debt-free CAF removed from NAFA on the very day of the Committee meeting, which shows the bad faith of those who decide the fate of the gambling industry in our country. This practice has two sides, on the one hand operators who have instalment payments granted by NAFA for existing debts (and who want to pay and continue their activity) are sanctioned, and on the other hand companies that “want a change” are taken out of the game – i.e. they no longer want to pay instalments, debts and other similar fees and with the “help” of the Office they close a business and reopen a brand new one which they continue to run in the same premises and with the same means of play (rented, of course).

Unfortunately, 10 years after the creation of the Office, we note with regret that the appointment of the management on purely political criteria is not the best solution in this niche area. It should be pointed out that the Office has been headed for almost a year now by a Vice-President with the powers of President, because, so far, no person has been found capable of fulfilling the role of head of this institution, which contributes considerable sums to the state budget each year (over half a billion euros per year). Perhaps the time has come for a professional to be appointed to head the office, one who knows the problems of the industry intimately and who can manage, together with a committee of knowledgeable people, without breaking the law at every occasion, or interpreting it at will, in such a way as to protect honest operators and punish those who try to defraud the state in any way.

The chaos that has been created at the Office in the last period of time will probably continue and will increase, given the measures ordered by the Control Corps of the MF. As far as we are concerned, it seems that there is again a desire to suspend the activity of the Romanian companies licensed as OEC Class II, even though the management of the Office has not made the slightest effort to endorse the accreditation scheme received from RENAR in July 2021 (almost 2 years), and even though a national court has confirmed that the previous suspension was illegal.

METRON SERV

Signed,

SC METRON SERV SRL,

Licensed Class II OEC