Shocking law: 41 deputies force firms to hire full-time accountant

41 Romanian LibDem deputies (PDL) sign a law project forcing all 700,000 firms in Romania to hire full-time accountants. Not one, but two. The law text has reached the Senate and has provoked a scandal in the bookkeeping world. The issue is debated by the specialty forums, money.ro informs.

According to the law, the accountancy has to be kept by a „compartment” with economic or complementary training. Compartments cannot be formed by one person, hired part-time or in the basis of a civil convention. The full legislative text can be found in Romanian here.

In other words, this law entails that any firm in need for bookkeeping, namely all the 700,000 firms currently active, regardless their size, need to hire not one, but two bookkeepers or an accountant and an assistant – the law is not clear in this sense.

Hallucinating explanations

The law project explains what made politicians conclude that the law needed change. In short, they argue that part-time work lead to unregistered employment.

„On the bookkeeping services market advantage has been taken of the confusion regarding the notion of compartment featured in the compatibility law. Therefore a significant number of entities have organised a single bookkeeping compartment formed by a single person hired with a part-time individual contract (one or two hours per day). Thus, unregistered work proliferated; financial situations were put together by persons without the necessary competence. The financial situations put together in this way can seriously harm the public interest”, the signing deputies indicate.

Among the LibDems signing the law draft are Sulfina Barbu – who could not be contacted for comments, Silviu Prigoana or Petru Calian, who postponed explanations for HotNews.ro.

Scandal in the bookkeeping world

For a few days now, conta.ro, the best-known accountancy online community, is debating the issue intensely.

If the accountancy law will be modified to the law draft, it will trigger another significant effect on the market: most bookkeepers, from a total of 300,000, who are hired part-time, will lose their jobs. Most bookkeepers are hired by 10 companies at the same time.

The law project signed by LibDem deputies has reached the Senate. It is due to be authorised by specialty commissions and voted in the plenum. Should it pass the senate, it will reach the deputies’ Chamber, decision forum.