Clotilde Armand, prosecuted for conflict of interest

Clotilde Armand, the mayor of District 1 of the capital, is being prosecuted by the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Bucharest District 1 Court, following the notification submitted to the prosecutors by the National Integrity Agency. The public institution accuses Clotilde Armand of conflict of interest and incompatibility because she would have used the position to obtain income for herself.

Following the opening of the criminal file, the mayor of Sector 1 was heard yesterday by prosecutors, who told him that for now he has the status of a suspect.

"I came to the Prosecutor's Office at the request of the prosecutor to clarify the situation at ANI, based on the complaint of Dan Tudorache (ed. - former mayor of Sector 1 Bucharest, investigated and prosecuted in several corruption cases). I have been made aware that I am a suspect, I understand that this is the procedure. I am accused of having been illegally remunerated with 3,000 euros in a European project in which I implemented anti-corruption measures at the City Hall of Sector 1. A project that was successfully completed at the end of May: 60 civil servants participated in training courses training / training in the field of corruption prevention, transparency, ethics and integrity, a register of corruption risks was created at the level of the local administration in Sector 1, operational procedures were developed regarding the management of corruption risks and the establishment of anti-corruption preventive measures at the level of the Sector City Hall 1 and awareness campaigns were carried out regarding the risk of exposure to acts of corruption. The City Hall of Sector 1 was one of the first local administrations in Romania to obtain certification for the anti-bribery management system. As I said before, we respected the law in the case of the project with European funds and contested the ANI report in court. I trust the Justice", Clotilde Armand said in a press release after the hearing.

What the mayor of Sector 1 forgot to mention in the press release is the fact that, although Clotilde Armand was also allowed to be mayor and project manager on European funds, she did not have to sign as mayor the remuneration earned as a manager, according to the legislation in force. ANI claims that the mayor of Sector 1 would have violated the provisions of Law 161/2003 (incompatibilities), but says nothing about those of Law 153/2017, which regulates the way in which projects with European funds must be carried out in public institutions, a law that gives Clotilde Armand the right to be both mayor and project manager.

However, Article 16 of Law 153/2017 provides:

"(1) Personnel from institutions and/or public authorities nominated in the project teams financed by non-reimbursable European funds benefit from the increase in basic salaries, position balances/position salaries, employment allowances by up to 50%, regardless of the number of projects in which he is involved. This increase is applied in proportion to the actual time allocated to the activities for each project".

Paragraph (4) also shows how much the officials have to work on such a project in order to get up to half their salary in addition: 20 hours/month - 10%; 21-40 hours/month - 20%; 41-60 hours/month - 30%; 61-80 hours/month - 40%; over 80 hours/month - 50%.

As ANI accuses Clotilde Armand of "increasing her monthly allowance by up to 30% as a result of being appointed as project manager", it would appear that the mayor - who benefits from the presumption of innocence - worked between 41 and 60 of hours per month in the implementation of anti-corruption measures. A simple calculation shows that the mayor Clotilde Armand needed 7 days of work of 8 hours a day for this activity alone, or 14 days of the 22 working days in which she spent 4 hours over the mayor's schedule, as project manager.

Paragraph 8 of article 16 states: "The provisions of this article are not applicable to personnel who benefit from the provisions of art. 17 and dignitaries, with the exception of the positions of president/vice-president of the county council and mayor/vice-mayor".

If the case instrumented by the Public Prosecutor's Office will reach the court, the judges will ask Clotilde Armand what exactly she did as a project manager and about the number of hours worked (the reality of the overtime), because 30% more on the salary means an 8-hour work day , in each week of project implementation.

The National Integrity Agency claims that the material benefit for the mayor of Sector 1 amounted to 18,720 lei, which would represent a damage to the European funds. According to ANI, as of February 18, 2022, Clotilde Armand is incompatibility because he simultaneously exercises the position of mayor of Sector 1 and the remunerated position of project manager, thus not complying with the legal provisions.

That's why ANI notified the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice regarding the existence of indications regarding the commission by Clotilde Armand of the crime of using the position to favor certain persons, provided for by art. 301 of the Criminal Code because, in the exercise of the mayor's duties, respectively in the period February - August 2022, he signed a number of 5 provisions that led to the creation of additional income for himself.

If the court determines that the mayor of District 1 is guilty of the accusations brought by ANI, Clotilde Armand risks a sentence of between 1 and 5 years in prison and the prohibition of exercising the right to hold a public office.

We remind you that Clotilde Armand was also criminally investigated regarding the fraud of the elections after which she became mayor of the 1st Sector of Bucharest in 2020, a file that went to the former Criminal Investigation Department of Justice because, in the end , order the closure of the case and the non-start of the criminal prosecution.