The former director of the Forensic Center, his deputy and an employee of the Center were arrested by anticorruption prosecutors and officers on abuse of power charges on August 9. These are suspected of rigging the tender contest to purchase equipment for the DNA testing lab and of casing damage of about 10 million lei to the state budget as a result, IPN has learned from the National Anticorruption Center.
It was determined that a specialist of the Forensic Center in June-August 2013, acting in the name of the chiefs, assured a Romanian company that this will be favored at the tender contest to buy equipment for the DNA testing lab. To substantiate his assertions, he organized an unofficial visit to the Ministry of Health and the Forensic Center for representatives of the Romanian company.
As a result of discussions, it was agreed to compile the technical requirements so that the parameters of the required medical equipment coincided with those of the equipment proposed by the Romanian firm. Consequently, the held tender contest minimized competition and favored the given company. Furthermore, the equipment purchased for 9.760 million lei could not fully ensure the functionality of the lab, while the technology that was to be used at this hasn’t been validated by the international human identification community and the lab cannot be thus accredited.
The investigation continued and more persons are yet to be questioned.
