The Trade Union of Employees in the Government Working Apparatus (SAALG) is calling for the honourable resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu and Economy Minister Irineu Darau following public information regarding meetings and institutional démarches related to the German group Schwarz/Schwarz Digits in connection with Romanian state institutions, including the Authority for the Digitalisation of Romania (ADR) and the Special Telecommunications Service (STS).
According to SAALG, if they do not resign, the two officials should be dismissed.
"The explanations claiming that the initiative was merely an 'exploratory' one are not sufficient. In public administration, appearances matter. The position of Deputy Prime Minister and that of minister cannot be used to open institutional doors to private economic operators, regardless of how large, respectable or strategic the company may be. The Romanian Government is not a business development agency. Victoria Palace is not a showroom and deputy prime ministers and ministers are not sales agents for private companies," a SAALG sent to AGERPRES on Thursday reads.
SAALG is asking Oana Gheorghiu and Irineu Darau, before resigning or being dismissed, to prove that they declared in the Single Register of Transparency of Interests (RUTI) all meetings, discussions and institutional contacts held with representatives of the Schwarz group or with entities interested in public decisions concerning digitalisation, cloud services, digital infrastructure, cyber security or public procurement.
"If they did, we request the public indication of the RUTI records, including the date, participants, purpose of the meetings, topics discussed and related conclusions. If not, why were they not declared?," the trade unionists say.
They stressed that RUTI is not an optional mechanism left to the discretion of officials, but a legal transparency obligation.
An additional circumstance that must be publicly clarified concerns the current leadership of the ADR, the trade unionists added.
"Aurel-Catalin Giulescu, the current president of the Authority for the Digitalisation of Romania, was previously a state adviser within Deputy Prime Minister Oana-Clara Gheorghiu's own working apparatus, a position from which he was released upon his appointment to lead the ADR. The press also reported that the proposal to replace the former ADR leadership and appoint the new management was backed by Minister Irineu Darau together with Deputy Prime Minister Oana-Clara Gheorghiu. When someone from the deputy prime minister's office reaches the leadership of the institution managing Romania's digitalisation after meetings with a private group interested in state digitalisation, the Government can no longer ask the public to believe in mere administrative coincidences," the press release reads.
"Mr interim Prime Minister, if this episode remains without consequences, the message sent to the administration and citizens is devastating: employees are asked to make sacrifices while officials are tolerated no matter what they do; (...) citizens are told about reform while at the top of Government an open-door policy is practised for preferential private interests. Keeping the two officials in office, in the absence of full clarification, publication of all interactions and political accountability, represents a public affront," said SAALG president Noni Iordache.
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