The Ungheni Local Office of the State Chancellery initiated the procedure for dismissing the mayor of Ungheni municipality and the mayor of Bumbăta village of Ungheni district, at the request of the National Integrity Authority (NIA).
In a press release, the NIA says that on January 4 this year, after its ascertaining documents became definitive by court decision, the integrity inspectors asked the Ungheni Local Office to initiate the procedure for discharging the two mayors. On February 2, the Office sent a new note by which it informed about the filing of lawsuits for initiating the procedure for annulling the two mandates of mayor.
In November 2018, the integrity inspector established by an ascertaining document that while on the job, the mayor of Ungheni signed three payment orders with a firm that belongs to his wife for purchasing goods and services, violating this way the legal provisions concerning the declaring and solving of conflicts of interest.
In the case of the mayor of Bumbăta, the integrity inspector determined that this allowed five conflicts of interest when he signed a number of administrative and legal documents, including the contract to employ his wife as chief librarian in the village.
Under the special legislation of the NIA, the two mayors were to declare the conflicts of interest and to wait for a solution from the integrity inspectors.
Contacted by IPN for a comment, the mayor of Bumbăta Dumitru Paladi said that he will appeal against the decision by which he is dismissed and he has evidence that no conflicts of interest existed. He acted only in the public interest.
The mayor of Ungheni municipality Alexandru Ambros was unavailable for comment. Earlier, he told IPN that he filed an application to have the NIAs ascertaining document annulled. “I lodged an application, won the case in the first court and the second (appeals) court and the Supreme Court of Justice’s decision is inexplicable as this court examined the case in the absence of the parties, in my absence and in the absence of lawyers, and quashed the decisions of the first and second courts,” stated Alexandru Ambros. He noted he considers the NIA’s document is illegal as the law was applied retroactively.
According to the NIA, when the labor relations are terminated, the two subjects will be put on the Register of Bans and will be banned from holding a public post, including of mayor, for a period of three years.
