Former president of the National Health Insurance House (CNAS), Vasile Ciurchea is prosecuted for abuse of office in a corruption case where the prejudice mounts to over EUR 16 M.
The anti-corruption prosecutors’ investigation is related to the period of 2007-2009, when Vasile Ciurchea was president of CNAS. More officials of the Health Insurance House are investigated along with him, ex-vice-president Simion Valeriu, former deputy general manager Leana Stoea, former IT director Mihai Bejat and Ovidiu Muntean, former director of the Legal department. They are all prosecuted for abuse of office with the public servants obtaining an undue benefit for him or for other.
In this file there are also prosecuted for the same crime Irinel Popescu, former CNAS president during January-December 2009 and also HP Romania, as legal person, is prosecuted for complicity to abuse of office.
Vasile Ciurchea has recently resigned from the CNAS helm, on March this year, invoking personal reasons.
The anti-corruption body’s charges refer to a contract clinched between CNAS and HP Romania for the Integrated Single Informatics System, a soft created to prevent cases of dummy patients, dummy prescriptions released at large and unjustified hospitalizations. Two private companies, HP and Siveco, but alo STS, the Romanian Special Telecommunication System, were in charge with implementing this system. Due to the additional contracts, the final cost of the system is not clear, but, according to “Adevarul” daily it would exceed EUR 100 million.
According to a DNA press release, during 2007-2009, CNAS and HP Romania clinched several additional papers to a contract meant to provide CNAS with a computerized system. The additional papers enabled extra technical assistance and on-site training services to be bought for overrated prices, EUR 804/per person a day according to two of the additional act and RON 760/ per person a day according to another one.
The anti-corruption prosecutors say that the additional acts have been signed without a legal acquisition procedure, meaning that CNAS accepted the proposals tabled by HP Romania without making its own assessment of the given price, without a real negotiation and without the supplier making a substantiation of the price.
Moreover, the investigators claim that there were services subcontracted at lower and lower prices so that contractors cashed in EUR 200/per person a day.
“A prejudice of EUR 16,847, 406 including VAT was created by the alleged illegal affair and CNAS illegally paid this money. The CNAS employees signing the additional documents are responsible for this prejudice, together with HP Romania company, which in its offer asked for an overrated, unfounded price,” reads the DNA release.
Commissioned in 2010, Integrated Single Informatics System blocked only a month after being inaugurated. The system failed again in august 2012, with the argument that the servers have been overheated.