Deputy minister of finance Maria Caraus and three businesspeople were rested for 72 hours on suspicion that they attempted to fix public tender contests, IPN reports.
According to the National Anticorruption Center, the deputy minister, knowing that 15 million lei from the reserve fund was recently allocated by a Government decision for equipping the National Clinical Hospital, tried to convince persons from the hospital’s administration that the transfer of this money depends exclusively on her decision and they should offer her a recompense for the hospital to benefit from this money.
She also promised to favor the allocation of a similar sum for the repair and renovation of the hospital. The decision was to be taken in September-October 2017, when the state budget was to be rectified.
The deputy minister also requested the person in charge of the medical institution to favor representatives of building companies at the public tender contest that was to be held on October 11, 2017. For choosing these as winners, Maria Caraus promised 5% of the allocated sum to the institution’s representative and she intended to take another 5%.
Legal action over passive and active corruption was taken after representatives of the medical institution reported what was going on. Searches were performed in the homes, cars and offices of the deputy minister and the businessmen. These face 7 to 15 years in jail, a fine of 400,000 to 500,000 lei and ban on holding particular public posts or performing particular activities for 10 to 15 years.
