Seven employees of the Disability Determination Council have been arrested by the National Anticorruption Center (CNA) on suspicion that they solicited bribes for satisfying applicants’ requests for disability pensions.

The amounts of the bribes ranged from 250 to 600 euros depending on the degree of disability, and could reach tens of thousands of lei if the pension was awarded for life, CNA said. One such example included a mother of a blind child who was legally entitled to a pension for life, but she was convinced she needed to pay the evaluators 650 euros for their services. Other applicants paid bribes to receive pensions for disabilities they didn’t have.

CNA said some 50 employees of the Council were involved in alleged acts of corruption and influence peddling. 20 employees have been formally accused and 7 were arrested.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection said in a statement it will cooperate with the investigation and will offer whatever information is necessary to elucidate the investigated cases.