Part II
Simona Gherghina, Assistant, Ph.D., Law School, University of Bucharest, On public money – a definition
Although a preferred subject for discussions on major political and economic themes in the last years, public money are not clearly legally structured. Applicable regulations provide for repetitive definitions of “public funds”, thus implicitly allowing for the budget from which such funds are allocated as an identification criterion. The strict use of this vague criterion makes at least uncertain the qualification as public funds of certain amounts not included in public budgets as well as of those administered by private persons according to legal provisions. This study proposes two alternative criteria for identifying public money, that are to include all existing cases, including those when public money are administered by private persons. The main criterion is the patrimony to which the funds belong, according to which amounts in the patrimony of public legal persons are public money. The economic perspective related to budget is thus replaced by a legal perspective centered on patrimony. This main criterion is completed by an additional criterion that considers the express and imperative destination of funds, allowing the identification of private administered public funds.
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