The milestones on the County Road DJ 701 in Teleorman County were placed at 800 metres, instead of 1,000 metres, a former county counsellor says, under the protection of anonymity. The road actually was shorter by 6-7 km, a former Teleorman Prefect added, according to ‘Liber in Teleorman’ publication, quoted by ziare.com.
The rehabilitation of DJ 701 (Dambovita Gratia – Poeni – Silistea – Scurtu Mare – Slavesti – Ciolanesti – Zabreasca – Dobrotesti) was conducted during 2008-2009 and is currently under the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) investigation in the Tel Drum file.
In this file, PSD leader Liviu Dragnea is charged with setting up an organised criminal group, fraud on European money and abuse of office. This was one of the works completed by Tel Drum, investigated by OLAF, along with county road DJ 506 Cervenia-Vitanesti-Babaita.
The Teleorman County Council was led, during 2000-2012, by the current PSD leader, Liviu Dragnea.
“The county roads, investigated by OLAF, are a topic full of unknown stories. What did they do? They changed the milestones at 800 metres instead of 1 km. Actually, the road was longer on the paper that in reality, so that they could steal more,” the county counsellor said, according to the source.
Judicial sources have told ziare.com that the DNA investigation is focused on these issues.
Former Prefect of the Teleorman County during 2009-2012, Teodor Niculescu, the one who checked the contracts in terms of legality, has confirmed the information. He said there is a difference of 6-7 km.
“Things are quite simple. In the public domain, DJ 701 has a certain length, but actually it is shorter. The difference is 6-7 km. When they designed the project, they had to do it according to official documents. They realised that, in fact, the road was shorter. They should have changed the figures. They could have sent it to the Government to request to change the length of the road. I suspect that, after filing the project and it became eligible, they did not have the time. It’s strange they acted illegally, although they could have acted legally. They provided false information to get European money,” Niculescu has told for ‘Liber in Teleorman’.
The former Prefect said that, before the press signalled about the roads, several county council decisions were intended to change the length of the roads, among them DJ 701.