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Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu declared today that he will report to the Lower House Health Committee if he is invited to do so in connection with the public release of data on Covid tests and vaccinations, mentioning that he is happy to "explain whatever needs to be explained" and that "absolutely nothing illegal has been done."
The Health Minister also made it clear that his honorary adviser Stefan Voinea had the legal right to access the data, which contained no classified information.
"[Accessing this data] was one of his duties during his office as personal advisor, and as an honorary advisor, that's what he obviously did. (...) He had the legal right to access the data and anyone else should have access to it, this is no classified data. I think this should be clear: this is no secret data, it's not classified data and the regime of classified information is pretty clear," the Minister pointed out.
Voiculescu added that the Health Ministry had applied with the National Public Health Institute for getting access to the data and that there was absolutely nothing illegal about that.
"It's the Health Ministry requesting access to the National Electronic Vaccination Register, not just some other person. (...) I turn to the person who is best suited to do a job and who has a legal right to do it. (...) Attempts have been made to manipulate the public opinion into believing that this was classified data. This is not so, Mr. Stefan Voinea is an honorary advisor, just like other honorary advisers the ministers of the Romanian government have or have had and who, fortunately, work with us without being paid, because the public administration needs help. This is no secret. Is it a secret for anyone that the public institutions in Romania don't work as they should? (...) Yes, we work with honorary advisers. Absolutely nothing illegal has been done," Voiculescu explained.
The chairman of the Lower House Health Committee Nelu Tataru declared on Tuesday that a decision on whether to summon Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu to Parliament for hearings on this subject will be taken after the report of the Prime Minister's Control Body on the publication of data on Covid tests and vaccinations.
Nelu Tataru maintained that an honorary advisor cannot have access to passwords that belong to a Secretary of state, because such an advisor "has other duties" and "does not have a job description".
AGERPRES
