IMPARȚIALITATE·INTEGRITATE·EFICIENȚĂ
August, 18th, 2017
No. 828/VIII/3
Press Release
The prosecutors within the National Anticorruption Directorate – the Section for Combating the Offences assimilated to the corruption offences ordered the start of criminal proceedings against the following suspects:
- S.C. TEL DRUM SA, legal person
- PITIȘ PETRE and VIȘAN MIRCEA, representatives of S.C. TEL DRUM SA
All of them for perpetrating the offence of using and presenting, documents or false, inaccurate and incomplete statements, in bad faith, if the perpetrated deed lead to the unlawful awarding of European funds.
- S.C. WFA IMPEX SRL, legal person
- ION FLORIAN, representative of the legal person WFA IMPEX SRL,
- NEDA FLOREA, representative of S.C. TEL DRUM SA,
All of them for perpetrating the offence of using and presenting, documents or false, inaccurate and incomplete statements, in bad faith, if the perpetrated deed lead to the unlawful awarding of European funds.
On May 16th, 2017, the National Office for the Prevention and Control of Money Laundering was notified about certain suspicions regarding the activity of some companies, which during 2016 would have used a scheme for illegally obtaining European funds by over-assessing the price of some equipment.
The procedural acts carried out by the prosecutors up to this date indicated that there are data and evidence that describe the following state of facts, as described in the ordinance for continuing the criminal investigation:
During July 2015, the Ministry of European Funds accepted for contracting a project proposed by TEL DRUM SA in the framework of the "Increase of Economic Competitiveness" program, financed by European funds. Within this project, TEL DRUM SA wanted to acquire a "mobile asphalt mixing plant for increasing the economic competitiveness of SC TEL DRUM SA".
Following the submission of the reimbursement application in February 2016, the beneficiary TEL DRUM SA received from the European funds the amount of 4.170.462,5 lei, an amount close to the maximum eligible amount within the project, a non-refundable amount.
The investigations revealed that, within the project in which financing from European money was awarded, TEL DRUM SA, through its representatives Vișan Mircea and Petre Pitiș and with the help of the legal person WFA Impex SRL and of Neda Florea and Ion Florian, simulated the procedure through which the company TEL DRUM SA acquired the mobile plant for the preparation of asphalt mixtures.
As a result of the procurement procedure, it was found that the winning bidder was WFA IMPEX SRL. In reality, this firm has an affiliation relationship with TEL DRUM, as it was only interposed between the machine supplier and the beneficiary TEL DRUM, with the sole purpose to artificially increase the purchase price of the machine and, consequently, to increase the non-refundable amount received by TEL DRUM SA. Furthermore, TEL DRUM SA conducted direct negotiations with the supplier, including regarding the offer that the supplier was expected to make to WFA Impex SRL and offered to the winning company SC WFA Impex SRL information on the awarding procedure for the supply contract of the respective good, before the
Consequently, the trade company TEL DRUM SA received the amount of 4.170.462,50 lei representing the eligible non-reimbursable expense from European funds.
The suspects were informed about their criminal status and charges, in accordance to the provisions of art. 307 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
It should be mentioned that the criminal action represents a stage of a criminal trial regulated by the Criminal Procedure Code, created in order to create the procedural framework for administrating the evidence, an activity which cannot, under any circumstances, infringe the principle of presumption of innocence.
THE INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE