Hello dear people!
This is a response to the mail with all the accusations towards me Lia Elena Porfir, and my organization Phoenix Carita.
Some days ago a mail from a certain Mr. Stefano Cobello from Verona Italy started to go around on several e-mail list all over Romania and maybe Europe.
This mail will give answers to all of the accusations that Mr. Stafano Cobello unrightfully has directed towards me, my organization and colleagues way of working.
First let us start with the last opinion exclaimed around this topic, Mr Andrei Popescu, from the Grundtvig Deparment in Romania, wrote that this project was NOT funded but was recognized by the Romanian Socrates National Agency. See the attached copy of the contract showing that Phoenix Carita was not economically supported, with stamps from the NA.
Andrei Popescu should not have been so surprised by this mail from Mr. Cobello since our organization has dutifully sent a report directly after the meeting about what has happened during this meeting, with the wish of closing the project form Phoenix Carita�s side.
You can find attached to this letter copies of contracts and mails from ALL the partners in this project and agreements made.
This project started in 01/08/2004, after months of working together under the lead of the main organizer and coordinator Bernhard Eder from Germany. When presenting the project to the National Agency in Romania it turned out that it was impossible because this would have been the second time that Phoenix Carita would have received a grant for Grundtvig. So the answer was that there was no money to grant this project with.
Mr. Eder knowing that the work that had been done for the applications to this point would be useless if Phoenix Carita could not sign the partnership for the project.
Mr. Eder contacted me several times asking and begging us to participate in the project even without economical contribution, Mr. Eder also contacted the National Agency of Romania explaining to them why they should approve Phoenix Carita as a partner, and to send us the contract that was need for bringing this project forward.
This was all agreed with the promises from Mr Bernhard Eder about economical support for our partnership covering all expenses including the involvement of the Romanian participants.
Since this date our NGO has been working for around 8 months without economical contribution.
When it came to the moment to organize the meeting in Romania, Rimnicu Valcea, we knew about the economical situation for this meeting and that there were no money foreseen for the Romanian team, organization and not even for our participants.
Phoenix Carita explained to the Manager and coordinator of the project Mr. Eder that we impossibly could arrange a meeting here in Romania without money, and impossibly cover all the costs of the meeting and also for the Romanian participants to be present during the project. All of this was said by phone to, Mr. Eder answered and also in mail that we were not to be worried and that together we would manage all.
We arranged all the preparation for the meeting as any decent host would have done, and we based the costs for the project on a Hotel In Rimnicu, and we based the internal travel costs on a Private Firm, in order to satisfy the partner�s requests on sightseeing in Buhcarest and then arrival to Rimnicu Valcea.
We also presented the budget and economical situation to our foreign partners and explained that the Romanian group did not have any money to pay food, lodging for the Romanian participants, internal travel costs, and material costs for the project. This all was presented in numbers as a maximum of costs for the partners, and Mr. Eder answered to this e-mail approving to many of the prices and changing some others, saying that all of this costs will be paid by all the foreign partners. This is how I understood our agreement.
The agreement was that all the foreign participants would pay an X sum per day for accommodation, breakfast, food and coffee, and in this way allow the Romanian participants to participate in the project and live at the same hotel and eat the same food and drink the same coffee without economical exclusion. This was the only way to include the 5 Romanian participants.
This was a maximum of costs and of what it finally could be, and we were to discuss and talk about the actual prices in Romania during the project.
So this means that the total sum paid by the foreign partners would not only cover the 11 participants but also the 5 participants from the local level (2 organizers from Valcea, 3 from Moldavia region- partner of the project), food for 3 translators and all extra costs directly connected to the project.
But important to know is that Phoenix Carita or me never asked for this money during the very short duration of the project, but only the money for paying of the transportation firm that me personally had to anticipate the money for.
Hereby I will declare for each one of the accuses that Mr Stefano Cobello has aimed to me:
Mr. Stefano Cobello says;
1. this persons in order to organise the parnter meeting asked us a contribution of 100 euro each beacuse she did not received any money form the national agency
Answer:
It is true that Phoenix Carita was not financed from the Romanian National Agency. But Phoenix Carita did not ask for 100 Euros from each partner but proposed a total sum of 200 Euros to cover material costs, such as folders, paper, pens, flipchart and conference room.
This request was accepted by Mr Bernhard Eder that said that the German and Italian partners agreed that they would divide the costs between them so 100 euros each. (*see attached mail from Bernard Eder)
2. she asked us from Budapest to Valcea 110 euro per person ( we refused it) and we agreed of 300 euro return minubus, but at the enf was a single way and 350 euro.
Answer:
The meeting was during the Romanian orthodox EASTERN, and some of the partners has exclaimed a desire to go around in Bucharest (and not Budapest as Mr. Cobello says) for a day before coming to Rimnicu Valcea, and Phoenix Carita was asked to organize with a Minibus for this.
I contacted different firms in Rimnicu Valcea and asked for different prices.
Due to the Romanian Eastern it was VERY difficult to find easy solutions (you Romanians know what I am talking about), and the ONLY I could find that could work during Easternn was one company agreeing about a cost of 0,70 Euro / Km.
The distance between Rimnicu Valcea and Bucharest Airport is around 200 km with a return it makes 200 km. (the firm was from Rimnicu Valcea and had to go to Bucharest to pick them up and the price would have been the same if it would have been coming from Bucharest).
But since some of the foreign partners had requested a roundtrip of Bucharest upon their arrival and some others asked for one roundtrip to the countryside areas at their departure we made an estimation of about 500 km for their arrival with roundtrip in Bucharest. And another calculation for the departure of two different vehicles, one taking the Italians directly to the airport and the other doing a roundtrip before going to the airport. At least another 500 km for one group and about another 500 km for the other group. The calculations you can make yourselves.
The sum agreed about with Mr. Bernhard Eder was that each one of the participants was to pay 100 euros for the transports Bucharest airport- Rimnicu Valcea- Bucharest Airport. (Please see the attached contract with the transport firm).
I also offered another cheaper possibility for the Polish Partner to arrive from Krakow to Alba Iulia in train and bus from there to Rimnicu Valcea, but the Polish partner did not want to accept this offer because they said that they had some problems to take care of in Bucharest before coming to Rimnicu Valcea.
3. she organzed a stay for us, 11 persons, in a hotel Capela, which was disgusting place, dirty, somoked, and we had a bad dinner at our arrival, unberable food. Rooms and blankets were broken and dirty.
Answer:
Yes I organized this stay for the �whole group� and not only for the 11 foreign persons but also for the 5 Romanian participants, which makes a total of 16 persons.
(see my Swedish colleague�s point of view regarding the standards of the �Motel Capela� in attached file).
4. she asked us 41 euro per person for the hotel breakfast included, and we have found the the "hotel" price was in reality only 16 euro per person breakfast included.
Then she asked us 6 euro per person for the cofeee break, 10 euro for dinner per person and 6 euro for lunch,
Answer:
The agreement made with Mr.Bernhard Eder before the meeting about paying also for the Romanian participants the lodging and food was made upon another hotel called � Maria� which was a hotel that costs more and in the end it was impossible to eat, live and carry out the project in this hotel �Maria� so a local agency was contacted and was presented the economical agreement made with Mr. Bernhard Eder. What this Agency presented to us was the �Motel Capela�, so the price was by us negotiated trough an agency without knowing the costs of this place. Please keep in mind that the total price did not include only 11 persons but 16 with food and accommodation plus the food for 3 translators as agreed with Mr Bernard Eder.
The costs for coffee break, lunch, dinner were always calculated on 19 persons but resulting as 11.
5. She also asked us 200 euro for the translator, 3 nice 17 years old students that she was going to pay 8 dolalrds per day, 3 days working, taken from a school, with the head master approval.
Answer:
This is a every interesting point because even though Mr Stefano Cobello, in point 7, says that they paid them 200 Euros personally they have contacted Phoenix Carita after the meeting sending a letter saying that they have not received ANY money from anybody. (*see attached copy of the letter)
We did not ask for 200 Euros for the translators from the beginning but we asked 50 Euros / translator for the whole duration of the project.
The translating girls were not only 2 but actually 4! One of the girls could only accompany the partners from and to the airport and the other three were supposed to have been divided one by each partner group during the meeting days.
Since this was also being done during the Romanian Eastern and these girls were not able to stay at home with their families (as the Romanian Eastern normally is celebrated), so we wanted to pay them at least 500.000 Lei/day (14 Euros) and some gifts such as a big Dictionary etc.
Mr. Cobello also said that they had special permission to leave schools for these days, but it is not true because it was during Romanian Eastern and they were free from school already.
Mr. Eden, also asked us to find somebody that we could pay less then a professional translator, and this was our solution.
6. in the moring we decided to look for another hotel, this one was impossible to bear. Lia told me: You will not find any hotel here, in 10 minutes afterwards were already were in a decent and cheaper hotel.
she told us that she was not guilty of it because she gave the task to organise everything to a local agency, that at the end we found did not exist.
Answer:
Yes, what Mr. Stefano Cobello said is correct, after only a couple of hours basically filled with complains regarding food, accommodation, etc from the same Mr Cobello, he (they) decided not even to follow the program and see what was the possible outcome of the first morning and refused even to look at the program.
So they moved to another Hotel called �Gemina� just next to Motel Capela, and found that there it was �cheaper�, well of course it was cheaper because at this moment Mr. Stefano Cobello and the other partners decided to exclude the whole Romanian group and like this the effective costs were only for 11 persons and not 16 as agreed earlier with Mr Bernard Eder.
The hotel they moved to is just as motel �Capela� a two star hotel but was not considered by our consulted agency because it is a hotel that doesn�t even have a Conference room or no space big enough for hosting 19 persons in the meetings.
After excluding the Romanian participants there were of course no problems to host the remaining company of 11 persons.
But still also remember that the prices calculated by us for the hotel and that were approved by the coordinator Mr. Eder were maximum prices and were supposed to be verified during the project.
(see the point of view of my Swedish colleague regarding the quality and standard of the two hotels in the attached document).
Regarding the agencies, we actually consulted two agencies and they exist and are called Deva. Srl and Agency Alutus, but what I tried to communicate to Mr. Cobello was that during the Romanian Eastern is really impossible to get in contact with them since they went away for holidays.
Finally it was Agency Alutus that was the Agency that helped us, offering us most possible with the sum that Mr. Edel had earlier accepted.
7. at this point we were to upset and decided to exclude the romanian partner form the project group, and seh was coming again asking us money, she also blackmail the young students, because we decided to give to them the 200 euro right away.
Answer:
Yes I came to ask for money to pay the firm that transported the partners from the Bucharest, around in Bucharest and to Rimnicu Valcea, that very money that I personally had anticipated.
After the arrival of the partners I needed to have the money back that I had anticipated but there was a big discussion, around invoices and a lot of talking before they gave me the money back (see attached copy of the contract with the firm).
Absolutely absurd that I would have blackmailed anybody out of the question and is not even worth discussing.
But then again see the letter attached from one of the Romanian girls claiming that she has not received any whatsoever payment from anybody for the translations done.
Well as you can see now the whole situation looks a bit different then how Mr. Cobello explained it.
What I find strange is that Mr. Edel that was present during the meeting did not speak up about our agreement he only avoided to talk with me, and none of them has contacted me since this unfortunate day to verify anything. And then all of a sudden this mail shows up to be read for thousands of persons when the first accusations should have been sent to me in order to have had them explained.
Still today I do not understand what happened in this meeting, but one theory is that the agreement reached by Mr. Eder was not accepted by the other partners, but as coordinator Mr. Eder should have told me about this before the project so we could have cancelled it. The other theory is that there have been a problem in the communication between the Mr. Eder and the other partners.
During the whole project that started last year I have only been in contact with Mr. Eder and him as a coordinator and manager of the whole project should have communicated decisions and things with all the partners.
I really do not know what has happened, but I know that I find myself having been working for free in this project during almost a year paying all internal travels to the meetings with the local partners, telephone costs, fax, internet etc.
It is also important to say that for writing this letter I have lost 3 days of work with translations, explanations and consulting and all of this for nothing since what I have done I have done with good intentions, and I think that Mr. Cobello should apologize himself in public and continue this discussion in private since the only persons regarded by this case are the partners from the project.
P.s. Please note that this is not my normal English and I have had help with writing this letter. So yes maybe it can have been some communicattion with me in my �normal� English. D.s.
P.s.s It does not work to upload the attachment to the list or to the group so please write me personally and I will send it to you one by one. D.s.s
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