IMPARȚIALITATE·INTEGRITATE·EFICIENȚĂ
September, 11th, 2012
No. 653/VIII/3
Press release
Following the requests of the media representatives, submitted based on the Law no. 544/2001, the Information and Public Relations Office is authorized to state as follows:
The prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Directorate – the Territorial Service Pitești have started the criminal investigation against the following people:
1. NICOLESCU CONSTANTIN, President of the County Council Argeș, who was charged with the offences of using or presenting false, inaccurate or incomplete documents or statements, having as a result the undue obtaining of European funds; abuse of office against the public interests, if the civil servant obtained for himself/herself or for someone else a patrimonial or a non-patrimonial advantage, both offences being committed through repeated acts; taking bribe; forgery through repeated acts
2. OPRESCU CORNELIU, Mayor (when the offences were committed) of the Căteasca Commune, the County of Argeș, who was charged with the offences of using or presenting false, inaccurate or incomplete documents or statements, having as a result the undue obtaining of European funds, with extremely serious consequences; forgery
3. MERCEA CODRUȚA-LAVINIA, civil servant within the County Council Argeș, member of the tender evaluation commission, who was charged with the offences of abuse of office against the public interests, if the civil servant obtained for himself/herself or for someone else a patrimonial or a non-patrimonial advantage; forgery and use of forgery
4. NICOARĂ MIHAIL-GABRIEL, civil servant within the County Council Argeș, member of the tender evaluation commission, who was charged with the offences of abuse of office against the public interests, if the civil servant obtained for himself/herself or for someone else a patrimonial or a non-patrimonial advantage; forgery and use of forgery, all the offences being committed through repeated acts
5. PINTILIE IULIANA MIOARA and BOCIOACĂ SABINA-ELENA, civil servants within the County Council Argeș, members of the tender evaluation commission, who were charged with the offences of abuse of office against the public interests, if the civil servant obtained for himself/herself or for someone else a patrimonial or a non-patrimonial advantage, committed through repeated acts
7. FLORESCU AURELIA-MIRELA, DOBRE CRISTINA, STANCU OLGA, civil servants within the County Council Argeș, members of the tender evaluation commission, who were charged with the offence of abuse of office against the public interests, if the civil servant obtained for himself/herself or for someone else a patrimonial or a non-patrimonial advantage
10. PLETOIU ECATERINA, representative of SC PROIECT INFRA 2005 SRL Pitești, who was charged with the offence of forgery of private documents, committed through repeated acts
11. DIDEA IONEL, public notary within the Office of the Public Notary "DIDEA IONEL" from the Municipality of Pitești, who was charged with the offence of forgery
12. DOBRE GRIGORE, associate and administrator of SC ZEUS S.A. Pitești, who was charged with the offences of complicity to abuse of office against the public interests, if the civil servant obtained for himself/herself or for someone else a patrimonial or a non-patrimonial advantage, committed through repeated acts; giving bribe, forgery committed through repeated acts and forgery of private documents
The prosecutors’ resolution for starting the criminal investigation stipulates as follows:
During March 2009 the County Council Argeș, in its capacity as Contracting Authority, organized a public procurement procedure through open tender having as object the restoration of a bridge (the locality Căteasca) which had been damaged by floods.
The respective funds came from accessing a project financed with PHARE funds, a project strictly designed for the restoration of the objectives concerning the road and environment infrastructure which had been damaged by floods during April – May and July – August 2005. In order to access the European funds, civil servants from the County Council Argeș falsely certified in the financing request the fact that the respective bridge had been damaged by floods, even though it had been previously damaged, thus, it was not eligible for the respective project. The financing request was signed by the accused Constantin Nicolescu, President of the County Council Argeș and the Mayor of the Căteasca Commune, Oprescu Corneliu.
In spite of these false aspects mentioned in the financing request, the respective financing contract was signed in 2006, existing clues that the beneficiary, the County Council Argeș, unjustly received the total sum of 1,224,083.64 euro as PHARE non-reimbursable financing.
During 2009, following the tender organized by the County Council Argeș, the contract for the restoration of the bridge was illegally awarded to the commercial company ZEUS S.A., considering that initially, another company had been declared the winner of the tender, a company which was subsequently arbitrarily removed by the evaluation commission after the resumption of the procedure ordered by Constantin Nicolescu.
The removed company had submitted a better financial offer, respectively 3,779,787.8 lei cheaper, amount which represents the prejudice caused to the County Council Argeș.
The construction works were executed by SC ZEUS S.A. and SC DRACONES CONSTRUCT GRUP SRL Pitești, the latter having as associate a relative of the President of the County Council Argeș, respectively his son in law. Moreover, the supplier of goods was SC SETRO METAL GROUP SA Câmpulung, a company also controlled by a close relative of the President of the County Council Argeș,
Based on some falsified documents, within a completely falsified public procurement procedure, during June 2010, the County Council Argeș awarded a contract at the value of 4,973,065.75 lei, to the same company, SC ZEUS S.A, for alleged additional works to the same bridge which in reality were not justified, since they had already been executed in March 2010.
During 2009, Nicolescu Constantin received as bribe a commercial space located in Pitești, at the surface of over 300 square meters, at the value of 447,000 lei from Dobre Grigore, major shareholder and administrator of SC ZEUS S.A. On March 23rd 2009, in order to dissimulate the corruption offence, a fictive buying-selling contract was concluded at the Office of the Public Notary Didea Ionel.
Both during the public procurement procedure and at the stage of carrying out the contract, several documents were falsified (provisions for the site, necessity reports, minutes, etc).
On September 11th 2012, the 12 accused were informed about the charges brought against them, according to the provisions of article 6 paragraph 3 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The prosecutors ordered the measure of not leaving the locality for 30 days against the following accused: Mercea Codruța-Lavinia, Nicoară Mihail-Gabriel, Pintilie Iuliana Mioara, Bocioacă Sabina-Elena, Florescu Aurelia-Mirela, Dobre Cristina, Stancu Olga and against other two defendants i.e. Pletoiu Ecaterina and Dobre Grigore the prosecutors ordered the measure of not leaving the country for 30 days.
It should be mentioned that the start of the criminal investigation represents a stage of the criminal proceedings regulated by the Criminal Procedure Code, in order to set up the procedural framework and to gather the evidence, activities which cannot, under any circumstances, infringe the principle of presumption of innocence.
THE INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE