Liberal Florin Roman steps down as Digitisation minister

Accused of plagiarism and having a bachelor degree at Babes Bolyai University (UBB) in Cluj-Napoca, although he did not attend the university, the Minister of Digitisation, Florin Roman, also vice-president of the National Liberal Party, resigned from the Government.

“I resigned today as Minister, thanking the Prime Minister and the government team. When white turns black, when every word is misinterpreted, when you assume material errors, but you end up in being lynched from the first day of office, it’s too much. I do not want this scandal to affect the activity of the Executive”, Florin Roman posted on Facebook today.

He also accused USR chairman Dacian Ciolos of orchestrating an attack against him, announcing he will sue Ciolos.

“I will see Mr. Ciolos in cour, he is the one who coordinated the topic and the attack. He stuck the plagiarist tag to me without a court or commission to give a verdict. For the rest, to those who set their eyes on those 2 billion euros for the ‘connection’ to digitisation by monopoly, I tell you one thing: You won! You did not manage to charge me with criminal offenses, but you caused the resignation of a minister over negligence in the resume“, Roman added.

According to political sources, Prime Minister Ciuca allegedly asked him to resign, otherwise he will be reshuffled.

Following accusations of plagiarism in his master degree’s thesis, the Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitization, Florin Roman, was involved in a new scandal. He stated in his CV that he has a bachelor degree in Economics from the Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB) in Cluj-Napoca, claiming he attended these courses between 1992-1996.

However, the rector of UBB, Daniel David, said that Roman had not attended the courses of this university, but those of a college in Alba Iulia, and as this college was not accredited, Roman passed the graduation exam at UBB.

“So he has a graduation degree, not a bachelor’s degree from UBB. It would be very fair and honorable for Mr. Roman to correct his CV,” UBB Rector Daniel David told Hotnews.ro.

This was the third lie discovered in Florin Roman’s CV, within 10 days. Initially, Florin Roman said that he could not find his book published by the Academy Publishing House, then he admitted that he did not write it. He later said that the book was in fact an article, but he did not find it either. Libertatea daily proved that 10 pages out of 10 verified from the master’s degree of the research minister are plagiarized to the letter from the work of a professor from Timișoara.

When the plagiarism row has come out, Roman replied that “he was not appointed minister for creative writing and this is not the most important thing”.

Moreover, Roman was accused of having no connection with the Digitisation portfolio and to this he retorted: “quite the opposite, it is an advantage that I have nothing to do with this sector”.

“Some accused me that I have no connection with the digitisation field, but I see it as an advantage for if I had come from that field, most who are connected to the field have usually businesses in that area. It’s better to have a minister who has nothing to do with that sector for some risk of having an appetite of mistaking the public money with their own businesses. So, in terms of integrity, I guarantee I have no business in this sector,” Roman argued at that time.

Who’s in the cards to take over the Digitisation?

For the time being, Economy ministry has taken over the Digitisation portfolio after Roman’s resignation, as interim minister. Sources from PNL told journalists that Pavel Popescu and Robert Sighiartău are rumoured to take over the vacant Digitisation seat.