Over 500 villas belonging to the RAAPPS (Self-governing Department for Administration of the State Heritage and Protocol) are going to be sold in the coming months. State official promise few of them are to be sold by direct negotiations. If there is no auction held, according to the controversial norms Romanian deputies passed recently, the government promises transparency instead, claiming authorities will take care that the villas should not be underpriced. Those state officials who live in such rented villas at present may not buy the houses by direct negotiations. The Romanian government's general secretary Ilie Bolojan announced in yesterday's press conference that the government was going to consent to the full list of RAAPPS properties for sale 60 days after the new law is published in "The Official Monitor". According to Ilie Bolojan, direct negotiations will become an actual procedure over some 3-4 months so that they can document on current prices. The government's representative outlined it was important that the properties should be sold for current prices and he promised full transparency for the process. He also mentioned that those people having contracts to inhabit such properties, including the officials in power, wouldn't have the right to buy them by direct negotiations. The 500 properties for same are about a half of the RAAPPS properties. The remaining ones are going to be used for protocol or distributed to public institutions, diplomatic missions, political parties and unions. He expressed authorities' intention to keep some 150-200 such properties in central Bucharest, adding that the RAAPPS would proceed to bidding to select authorized evaluators to come up with a price to become the basis of offers for potential buyers. If the renters turn it down, the property is to be sold by public auction. The government official explained that those people not leaving such RAAPPS villas when their mandate was up were to be evacuated at once or they would have to pay the best price with the RAAPPS: 50 Euro/ 1 square meter. When asked how many ex officials still lived in protocol villas, Ilie Bolojan answered they were about 80, mostly on contracts signed in the 90s. (...) (O.B.)