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Former Health minister Ioana Mihaila showed up at the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) on Friday, where prosecutors will announce that she has been indicted for abuse of office in the case concerning the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19, in which the damage would be over 1 billion euros.
The vaccine case also targets former prime minister Florin Citu and former Health minister Vlad Voiculescu.
According to the DNA, on 17 June 2020, the European Commission launched the European Strategy on speeding up the development, manufacturing and distribution of vaccines against COVID-19 proposing a centralised approach for the procurement of viable vaccine options and which involved the EC negotiating advance purchase agreements with manufacturers on behalf of member states.
The vaccines were to be distributed to EU member states according to population numbers, and the decision on priority vaccination of certain categories of the population was up to the member states, the DNA mentions.
Investigators maintain that member states had the possibility to use, within 5 days of notification, an "opt-out" clause, so they were not bound to pay any contribution for vaccines they decided not to request.
"In the present case, in the above-mentioned context, aspects related to the way in which, between January and May 2021, members of the Romanian Government, in violation of the legal provisions and without any documents/analyses proving the necessity of the purchase, contracted a much higher number of vaccine doses (Pfizer and Moderna), when the number of people eligible for vaccination communicated by the Romanian State to the European Commission was 10.7 million," the prosecutors explain.
According to the DNA, although the vaccine doses contracted prior to 1 January 2021 (37,588,366 doses) would have been sufficient to vaccinate more than 23 million people, two of the three persons against whom the requests for criminal prosecution are issued, benefiting from the help of the third, would have negotiated and ordered the purchase of an extra 52,805,690 doses of vaccine, worth a total of 1,005,498,687 euros, plus VAT, which constitutes a loss to the state budget.
USR
USR (Save Romania Union) leader Catalin Drula on Friday told a press conference in Brasov that the anti-COVID-19 vaccine file instrumented by the DNA (National Anti-corruption Directorate) is "nothing else but pure harassment" and that neither his colleague, former minister of health Vlad Voiculescu nor to representatives of PNL (National Liberal Party), the party that coordinated the vaccination process, "former liberal Prime Minister Florin Citu, or president Klaus Iohannis" are to be blamed for anything.
"I have already said it, this is a judicial malpractice, a file that has no substance. Moreover, it also targets people who were not in the chain of responsibility regarding the vaccine orders - the vaccines were carried out through that CNCAV, which coordinated the vaccination process, headed by Mr. Gheorghita [Valeriu - editor's note, president of the former National Committee for Coordination of Activities regarding Vaccination - CNCAV] and that the contracts were coordinated under the European Union. Beyond the fact that I am not a defender of Mr. Citu and we had very big differences, and with Mr. Iohannis too - those who decided these things - this has no substance even against them," stated the USR president.
According to him, even a report drawn up by the current government after vaccination does not talk about the involvement of any USR minister in this process.
"This government published, in 2022, a report at the end of the vaccination process, which is called 'Mission Accomplished' and which they took down from the websites in the meantime, in which those who did it and talked about the vaccination said that it was a success - President Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Ciuca and Mr. Gheorghita (...) There is no member, no USR minister there because the vaccination was coordinated by the PNL," said Catalin Drula.
At the same time, he mentioned that the file is "nothing else but pure harassment," and the prosecutor who is instrumentalizing the file is one with "anti-vaccine convictions," which can be seen clearly from the fact that, in his report, he talks about the positions of some scientists on this topic that he "contradicts with his own statements."
The former USR ministers of health, Vlad Voiculescu and Ioana Mihaila, presented themselves, on Friday, at the DNA, to be heard and announced by the prosecutors that they were charged with abuse of office, in the file regarding the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19, in which the damage would be over 1 billion euros. The file also concerns former PNL Prime Minister Florin Citu.
AGERPRES
