English
Satu Mare senator, Valer Marian, sent us an enquiry which he will be presenting in the Senate's meeting of Thursday, February 19th, concerning "certain aspects of a criminal nature pertaining to the activity of the Dâmboviţa Forest Department and the operation of the Dumbrava School Camp of Cobia".
The politician claims that according to a complaint of October 2014, the Dâmboviţa Forest Department, led by director Costel Preda, who was appointed by the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry at the time, Ilie Sârbu, acquired a Mercedes car for 97,000 Euros in 2003.
Valer Marian details in the enquiry: "The complaint mentions that the Mercedes vehicle was in fact acquired from minister Ilie Sârbu, who received it as a gift after businessman Ion Ţiriac was granted the lease of the hunting grounds of Balc, in the county of Bihor and that the deal was done through a proxy of the minister, in the county of Timiş (where he had his domicile and constituency)".
In order to investigate these facts, in the senate meeting of December 8th, 2014, senator Valer Marian asked a question to the delegate minister of Waters, Forests and Fish-farming. The answer he received was that the National Regia Naţională a Pădurilor - Romsilva (which was subordinated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests) which, in 2003, approved, through the program for investing out of its own funds, the acquisition of an SUV by the Dâmboviţa Forest Department, which bought from Vasile Cărpinişan, residing in Sânicolau Mare 2A, Timişorii st., a Mercedes SUV, ML 400 CDI model, manufactured in 2002, with 5000 km on board at a price of 3,810,523,500 old lei (the equivalent of the amount of 97,000 Euros at the leu-euro exchange rate valid at the time).
Valer Marian also says: "According to publicly accessible information, the hunting grounds of Balc was leased by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests to a company that belonged to businessman Ion Ţiriac in 2002, one year before the Mercedes vehicle was purchased by the Dâmboviţa Forest Department. An interesting and relevant aspect is that the lease of the hunting grounds of Balc to the company of Ion Ţiriac had initially been set at 10 years, and after a few weeks it was extended to 49 years".
Valer Marian states that the acquisition of a Mercedes SUV by a county Forest Department for traveling the forest routes is not justifiable in any manner whatsoever (this would be an absolute first of using a Mercedes SUV on forest trails), and said that there potential acts of corruption are shaping up (taking bribes and abuse in office by providing benefit to a third party). As a result, the senator is requesting that prime-minister Victor Ponta asks the Audit Body of the government to conduct the appropriate checks at the Dâmboviţa Forest Department, The National Forests Public Corporation -Romsilva and the Ministry of Agriculture, in relation to the acquisition of the Mercedes vehicle in 2003 and in relation to the lease of the hunting grounds of Balc in 2002.
The politician wants to receive the findings and the measures taken, including whether the notification of the National Anticorruption Department is necessary.
In the enquiry, Valer Marian also claims: "According to the notification received, which is corroborates with the aspects written in the article «The TSD members in the forest/The Dumbrava children camp has been turned into the leisure camp for the PSD youth», published by the România Liberă newspaper on May 15th, 2006 and signed by journalist Costel Oprea (head of the Investigation Division), between 2003-2004 the Association of Romanian Youth for Promoting Social and Democratic Principles has misappropriated the Dumbrava school camp of Cobia, the county of Dâmboviţa, one of the best known and biggest children's camp in Romania, to turn it into an entertainment camp for the members of the TSD (ed. note: Social democratic youth)". According to the enquiry, the camp featured a central pavilion, with a canteen-restaurant, several lodges and a huge yard for athletic and open-air cultural-educational activities.
The independent politician writes in the enquiry: "Through an internal decision, as president of the National Youth Agency, and secretary of state, Mrs. Daciana Sârbu decided that the National Agency of School Camps, which she had authority over, should set up a framework for cooperation with potential partners interested in the children camps, thus creating the legal environment for the theft perpetrated by the TSD: the possibility of collaboration contracts being signed between the Agency of School Camps and the Association of Romanian Youth for Promoting Social and Democratic Principles. Based on this internal decision, the National Agency of School Camps concluded a cooperation agreement, over a 20 year period, with the TSD association, by which the latter committed to maintain and use the amenities of the Dumbrava camp. Daciana Sârbu was involved in an obvious conflict of interest by allocating a school camp, while she was acting president of the National Youth Agency, to an association which held a dual position: founding member and member of the Board of Directors. According to the notice of the Court of the 5th District of Bucharest no. 128/IP/BIRP/ of October 30, 2014, Association of Romanian Youth for Promoting Social and Democratic Principles was created based on the court resolution rendered by the Court of the 5th District of Bucharest in the case 30/2003/PJ, on February 27th, 2003,and is recorded in the Special Registry of Associations and Foundations kept by the registry of the 5th district of Bucharest, under the no. 13/2003, Ist part,- Section S1. According to the same notice, by that date no requests for the dissolution or the liquidation of the association had been received, meaning that it was still operational. As president of the Association was designated lawyer Vlad Stoica, who at the time of its creation was a subordinate of Victor Ponta in the Audit Body of the prime-minister, and since 2012 he has held the position of head of the Chancellery of the prime-minister, s he was known as the man doing the dirty jobs of the Prime-Minister (such as the Duicu case, the privatization of CFR Marfă, the activities of the CNADR a.s.)".
Senator Valer Marian says that, the founding members include Victor Ponta, Daciana Sârbu and several former county leaders of the TSD, of whom, some became members of the parliament (Claudiu Manda, Dorel Căprar, Doina Fedorovici, Ovidiu Donţu) presidents of county organizations of the PSD (Remus Lăpuşan - Cluj, Dorel Căprar - Arad, Claudiu Manda - Dolj). Daciana Sârbu is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Association.
The enquiry by senator Valer Marian also shows: "While you have mentioned in While you have mentioned in your interest disclosure forms the role of founding member of the association, your wife Daciana Sârbu never did the same in hers, thus having committed the offense of false statements. During the time that she was a deputy in the Romanian Parliament and after becoming a deputy in the European Parliament, Daciana Sârbu did not report the position of founding member, nor her membership on the executive committees of the association, and of the Executvie Committe, respectively, thus being in a position of incompatibility. The theft continued through the acquisition, under shady circumstances, of the plot of land with a surface of 4 hectares that the camp was built on, which was the property of the state and the management of Romsilva, an institution that up until then was subordinated to minister Ilie Sârbu. In order to appropriate that plot of forestland, they found a former deceased land owner, named Georgescu Florea, whose heirs claimed a plot of forestland, on the grounds of Law no. 1/2001. With the cooperation of the Dâmboviţa Forest Department, the Local Commission for the application of the laws of the agricultural real estate of the commune of Cobia, led by a PSD mayor, granted the heirs of Georgescu Florea the ownership of the plot of land that the school camp was built on, even though his family had never owned any land in the area, as that forest had always been the property of the state. To become the property of the TSD association, the plot was sold several times until it was acquired by a young member of the TSD from Târgovişte, Şerbănescu Adrian Ionuţ, nephew of the president of PSD Dâmboviţa at the time, who donated it on May 15th, 2003 to the Association of Romanian Youth for Promoting Social and Democratic Principles. After the acquisition of the land, the TSD association hired a company from Bucharest to build several bungalow-style villas, intended for hosting the parties of the social-democrat youth. With the cooperation of minister Ilie Sârbu, money from Romsilva was diverted for the setup of a special road up to the gate of the camp that had existed for years, but did not meet the demands of the TSD members, whose main goal was to host parties at Cobia, in the heart of the forest. Out of the special fund for forest trails Romsilva allocated 2.5 billion ROL (old lei) to expand and modernize the forest trail in question leading up to the gate of the TSD camp. That money was allocated illegally, because, according to Ordinance no. 70/1999, the special fund for forest trails was not to be used for purposes other than the designing and the development of new forest trails, and under no circumstances for the modernization of the existing ones, such as the forest trail of Cobia. The works on that road were performed in 2003-2004 by SC Start SA, whose main shareholder was the president of the County Council of Dâmboviţa, Gheorghe Ana, long time member of the Social-Democrat Party - PSD (former prefect and deputy). After the PSD lost the power at the end of 2004, the works at the Dumbrava camp were halted and no one in the TSD cared what was happening anymore. The TSD association left a debt of over 100 million ROL, representing the equivalent value of the electricity consumed, because not one utility bill was paid after the conclusion of the collaboration contract in 2003. The utility bills were paid by the Dâmboviţa Branch of the National Youth Agency, meaning public funds were allocated for a political party business".
Valer Marian considers that the acquisition of the plot of land of 4 hectares and the modernization of the forest trail to the Dumbrava camp of Cobia were done with the cooperation of the director of the Dâmboviţa Forest Department in office at the time, Costel Preda, who was nominated in that position by the Minister of Agriculture and Forests, Ilie Sârbu. According to some local sources, quoted by senator Valer Marian, director Costel Preda has organized several parties and illegal hunts on the state's properties for minister Ilie Sârbu and other important leaders of the PSD, including the notorious hunt which led to the minister being shot in the genital area. "The Mercedes SUV ML 400 CDI model SUV acquired by the Dâmboviţa Forest Division for 97,000 Euros in 2003 was used in these hunts as well", senator Valer Marian says.
In this particular case, Valer Marian is asking the investigative body of the prime-minister to conduct audits of the legality of the awarding of the Dumbrava school camp of Cobia, in the county of Dâmboviţa to the Association of Romanian Youth for Promoting Social and Democratic Principles, the legality and the costs of the investment that the aforementioned association invested in the camp, the legality of the acquisition of the 4 hectare plot of forest land by the association, the legality of the financing of the modernization of the forest trail leading to the camp, as well as the conflict of interest and the incompatibility that Daciana Sârbu was in.
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