USR leader Barna asks PM Orban for increased testing capacity, prolongation of social protection measures

Save Romania Union (USR) leader Dan Barna on Friday asked Prime Minister Ludovic Orban, on the occasion of a meeting the two officials had at the Government headquarters, to "stop local barons from further wasting the budgets they have at hand" and to increase the testing capacity for COVID-19 at national level. "USR leader Dan Barna has had a meeting this morning at the Government with Prime Minister Ludovic Orban discussing such topical issues as the protective equipment, the status of tests, public reports and recognizing navigators as "key workers" in maintaining the economy functional or the situation of workers in agriculture who are leaving the country these days for Germany, Italy or Spain," announced the USR leader in a post on Facebook. On this occasion, Dan Barna presented several requests on behalf of the USR: *Stoping local barons from further wasting budgets they have at hand; "Any public procurement must be responsible these days and it only can be justified if it's related to the crisis effects. Because pansies, curbs or PR services are not it. And I also want to make an appeal to the local public administration authorities: prove that you do care about the people who voted for you before the Government gets to intervene. Stop "household" type of acquisitions and take care exclusively of the real priorities we need to deal with right now," said the USR head. *Increasing testing capacity at national level and introducing rhythmic testing of physicians fighting the epidemic; *Take firm measures against the polluters who "poison" the population, while "the impossible to breathe air in the past couple of days in Bucharest is just one example from a long series of facts happening because of the weak reaction" of the authorities; *Prolong the social protection measures, which expire once with the first decree that established the state of emergency, through furlough. "The fact that the measure exists was explicitly confirmed by the PM," said USR; *Ensure more transparency in public communication in what concerns the effects of the pandemic (number of cases in the intensive care, number of intubated persons) and the measures underway; *Speed up the process of announcing local producers of protective materials and equipment to cover for the current needs at the national level. USR also mentioned that "it will remain an honest partner of dialogue as long as there is real and direct consultation at parliamentary level" on the measures that are being considered. "We all want the same thing - to overcome this very difficult moment we are facing," mentioned the USR leader. AGERPRES (RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Adina Panaitescu)