The public procurement to the value of 500 million lei initiated by the former administration of the Public Services Agency for buying blank official documents was stopped, Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița announced in a press briefing, being quoted by IPN.
The procurement was initiated immediately after the Constitutional Court dissolved Parliament, even if the annual plan of the Public Services Agency didn’t include such a purchase. Moreover, the procurement was organized with multiple violations of the legal provisions, including concerning the periods for publishing the announcement, the modification of the value of purchase for several times and of the time limits for submissions. The procedure was organized in a hurry even if the Agency’s store of blank passports and the quantity of blank papers available according to the signed contracts enabled to issue passports during at least one more year, stated Natalia Gavrilița.
“I got the impression that the former administration of PSA towards the end of its mandate tried to cause enormous damage to the state. Moreover, the analyses of other state institutions revealed irregularities and it was recommended stopping the tender contest,” stated the Premier.
According to Natalia Gavrilița, the attempt to cause damage to the state budget was stopped, but the things identified during inspections pointed to the existence of an appropriation scheme. Therefore, all the seized documents and the inspection report will be submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office for opening an inquiry. “In this case, the prosecutors have data about companies, transfers, responsible persons and those who benefitted from this contract. We eased the work of prosecutors and I hope a lot that the case will end with the recovery of the lost money,” stated the Premier.
The new head of the Public Services Agency Mircea Eșanu said that in the case of purchases that exceed 10 million lei, the contracting authority is obliged to obtain the consent of the Electronic Governance Agency. This didn’t happen yet. Checks showed that a number large producers specialized in security printing weren’t admitted or were unable to take part in the tender contest. A new contest to purchase blank papers will be announced in the immediate period.
