An exchange of accusations took place between the Minister of Labor, Florin Manole (PSD), and former interim minister Dragos Pîslaru, concerning a controversy over the reporting of deinstitutionalized persons with disabilitiesa target committed to by Romania under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).
The Social Democrat claims that the report submitted to the European Commission included deceased individuals and that, following verification, 478 such cases were removed. Furthermore, Florin Manole states that, as a result, Romania will lose funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The Liberal rejects these accusations, asserting that the deceased individuals appeared in a previous dataset compiled by the former leadership of the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ANPDPD)specifically Alexandra Zara (who was dismissed following the nursing home scandal in Bihor)and that they were removed prior to the final submission of the report.
According to the explanations provided by Minister Manole, at the beginning of September, the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ANPDPD) reported to the European Commission that 3,976 individuals had been deinstitutionalized; however, "the actual figure was not 3,976, but 3,498 deinstitutionalized individuals." "We will not cover up this mistake," he stated.
Subsequently, following an analysis of the documents, several discrepancies were identified, and the European Commission requested an urgent revision of the reporting. As a result of a re-verification, 478 cases were removed, which reduced the number of eligible beneficiaries.
Minister of Labor Florin Manole maintains that the responsibility for the final consolidation and verification of information from the counties regarding the deinstitutionalization process no longer rested with Alexandra Zarathe former president of the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilitiesbecause the deadline for the county-level consolidation fell two days after her dismissal. Consequently, the responsibility for the final consolidation and verification of the information submitted to the Ministry (and, by extension, to the Commission) by the General Directorates for Social Assistance and Child Protection lay exclusively with the Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Protection and Elderly Persons (MMFTSS) and the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ANPD) during July and August, Manole stated on Tuesday in a post on his Facebook page.
Previously, former interim Minister of Labor Dragos Pîslaru stated that the list of "dead people" being brandished by the Minister of Labor is the one compiled on June 30 and signed by Alexandra Zara, the former president of the National Authority for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ANPDPD)an official who was appointed and supported by the PSD.
A recently published journalistic investigation reveals that the process of deinstitutionalizing adults with disabilities in Romania was carried out in a rushed, last-minute manner, exposing thousands of individuals to extreme vulnerability in order to artificially meet the targets set out in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP).
