IMPARȚIALITATE·INTEGRITATE·EFICIENȚĂ
June, 23rd, 2020
No. 368/VIII/3
PRESS RELEASE
The prosecutors within the National Anticorruption Directorate - the Section for Combating Corruption, ordered the start of the criminal action and the measure of the judicial control for 60 days, starting with June the 20th, 2020, against the following defendant:
IONEL EUGEN ADRIAN, acting as the general director of the National Company Unifarm SA, charged for committing the following offences:
- taking bribe,
- abuse of office by receiving undue benefits,
- complicity to influence peddling,
- instigation to intellectual forgery,
- using the position in favour of other people.
The ordinance of the prosecutors indicates that in this case there are data and evidence that describe the following state of fact:
While acting as the general manager of the National Company Unifarm SA, the defendant Ionel Eugen Adrian allegedly requested the amount of 760,000 euro from a middleman who was acting as a representative of a commercial company, in exchange for the state-owned company Unifarm SA awarding a procurement contract for the protection equipment against the infection with COVID 19 virus (250,000 overalls and 3 million surgical masks).
The contract was allegedly concluded with a private company, in the first half of March 2020, in violation of the provisions of Law 98/2016 on public procurement, both in terms of how it was negotiated and how it was awarded, without any procedure-taking place.
In addition, the 1 million masks delivered and received in the first instalment to the National Company Unifarm SA were not proper surgical masks (products included in the category of medical devices), but protective masks that were not in accordance with the standards provided by the contract and were basically other types of protective equipment than those agreed on in the contract.
At the same time, from his held position, the defendant Ionel Eugen Adrian allegedly convinced a public official working for CN Unifarm SA to certify falsely on the awarding documents related to the contract that the negotiation was carried out with the legal representative of the private company that delivered the equipment. In reality, the negotiation took place between the general manager Ionel Eugen Adrian and the middleman in a restaurant from Bucharest, where basically the terms of the contract and the price of the protective equipment were agreed.
In exchange for this "service", the middleman claimed the amount of 5,810,175 lei from the representatives of the company, for himself and for the public officials working for the National Company Unifarm SA, representing a percentage of 18% of the total value of the contract concluded with Unifarm. From this amount, the defendant Ionel Eugen Adrian expected to receive the amount of 760,000 euro agreed with the intermediary.
Because the supplier company did not pay any amount of the agreed 18% to the middleman, the defendant Ionel Eugen Adrian, in his capacity as the general manager of C.N. Unifarm S.A. decided to unilaterally terminate the contract.
Only a part of the total equipment indicated in the contract was delivered and paid for, respectively 1 million masks (which, moreover, were not in accordance to the technical specifications) and 26,000 overalls.
As result of this criminal activity, a damage amounting to 2,380,000 lei was caused against the patrimony of the National Company Unifarm, representing the equivalent value of the 1 million protective masks that were not in accordance with those provided by the contract.
Apart from the previously mentioned facts, it is noteworthy that, on June 6th, 2016, Ionel Eugen Adrian would have been appointed as the general director of Unifarm SA in violation of legal provisions. Specifically, in his capacity as a member and chairperson of the Board of Directors of the National Company Unifarm SA, he would have voted in favour of his appointment as the general manager of CN Unifarm SA, during the same meeting.
Yet the provisions of the Government Ordinance no. 109/2011 regarding the corporate governance of public enterprises specifically prohibits the Chairman of the Board of Directors from being appointed as a General Manager, an detail ignored by the members of the Board of Directors, including Adrian Ionel. He issued and signed the Decision no. 46 of June 6th, 2016, that lead to him receiving a net income amounting to 498,722 lei (between July 14th, 2016 and May 25th, 2020).
While under judicial control, the defendant has to comply each with the following obligations:
a) not to act in the capacity of general director of the National Company Unifarm SA and as a member of the Administration Council of the National Company Unifarm SA;
b) not to leave the territory of Bucharest Municipality and Ilfov county, without the prior consent of the case prosecutor;
c) not to communicate, directly or indirectly, in any way, with the people mentioned in the prosecutor’s judicial control ordinance;
The defendant was informed that, in case he violates his legal obligations in bad faith, the judicial control measure could be replaced with the house arrest measure or the pre-trial arrest.
The defendant was informed about his legal status and charges brought against him, in accordance with the provisions of art. 309 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
It is worth mentioning that the start of the criminal action represents a stage of the criminal proceedings regulated by the Criminal Procedure Code, carried out in order to create the procedural framework for gathering of evidence, an activity that under any circumstances, cannot violate the principle of presumption of innocence.
THE INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE