Vlad Voiculescu Prosecuted in Anti-Covid Vaccine Case. He Says Decisions Always Made by Citu and Iohannis

Former minister of Health during the pandemic, Vlad Voiculescu has bee prosecuted today by the anti-corruption body for two counts of abuse of office with particularly serious consequences and complicity in this offense in the case of the anti-Covid vaccine procurement, announced the DNA.

“On June 17, 2020, the European Commission launched the European Strategy for Accelerating the Development, Manufacture, and Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccines, proposing a centralized approach for acquiring viable vaccine options. This involved the negotiation of advance purchase agreements by the European Commission on behalf of member states. Vaccines were to be distributed to EU member states based on their population size, and decisions regarding the prioritized vaccination of certain population categories were left to the member states. It should be noted that member states had the option, within a 5-day notification period, to exercise an ‘opt-out’ clause, relieving them of any obligation to contribute to vaccines they chose not to request. In the aforementioned context, on March 10 and 18, 2021, the suspect, Vlad Voiculescu, acting as the Minister of Health, allegedly, in violation of legal provisions and without any documents/analyses attesting to the necessity of the procurement, transacted and ordered the additional purchase of 14,445,798 vaccine doses (Pfizer and Moderna). This occurred despite his knowledge that the number of eligible persons for vaccination reported by the Romanian state to the European Commission was 10.7 million and that the vaccine doses contracted before January 1, 2021 (37,588,366 doses), would have been sufficient to vaccinate over 23 million people. Additionally, the suspect allegedly drafted a memorandum approved on April 19, 2021, by suspect Cîțu Florin Vasile, as the Prime Minister of the Romanian Government, resulting in the transaction and ordering of the additional purchase of 4,260,269 doses of Pfizer vaccine. It is noted that this memorandum would have been presented for approval at a government meeting by one of the secretaries of state, who at the time had delegated responsibilities as the Minister of Health,” communicated the DNA.

Former ministers of Health Vlad Voiculescu and Ioana Mihăilă were heard at the DNA today to provide explanations in the case of the anti-Covid vaccine acquisition, over 50 million doses that Romania did not need.

Vlad Voiculescu came first to be heard by the anti-corruption prosecutors. Voiculescu brought various documents related to vaccine acquisitions, including a chart depicting EU purchases: “See a chart with green indicating the European average, with red showing Romania’s 2021 orders. Romania is below the European average. All countries purchased for 2021, except for Poland, the only country ordering fewer doses than Romania. Here’s the vaccination report. Remember who was on TV every day? On the first page of the report: recognize the person? (shows a photo of Klaus Iohannis – editor’s note.) The second page – Mr. Ciucă, the third page Mr. Ghiorghiță, the fourth page Mr. Baciu. And here it pretty much ends.”

“‘It’s not my signature on the contract; it wasn’t the health minister’s responsibility. You can wonder why the health minister was removed from the scheme; I criticized this as early as 2021. It’s Cîțu’s decisions that always consulted with Iohannis,” he added before entering hearings.

He told Digi24 a day ago that he was not involved in decision-making and blames former Prime Minister Florin Cîțu. “The Prime Minister made all the decisions; CNCAV and the Prime Minister are responsible; that was their responsibility, and responsibility doesn’t change. The truth, proven by all documents, is that the Ministry and the Health Minister were not involved in the vaccine procurement decisions”

Two days ago, former Liberal PM Florin Cîțu was officially indicted in the same case. Digi24 sources say the former prime minister refused to make statements to the prosecutor accusing him of complicity in abuse of office.

According to prosecutors, in this case ‘aspects related to how, from January to May 2021, persons from the Romanian Government, in violation of legal provisions and without any documents/analyses attesting to the necessity of the acquisition, would have contracted a much larger number of vaccine doses (Pfizer and Moderna), considering that the number of eligible persons for vaccination communicated by the Romanian state to the European Commission was 10.7 million.’

“Specifically, although the vaccine doses contracted before January 1, 2021 (37,588,366 doses) would have been sufficient to vaccinate over 23 million people, two of the three persons for whom requests for criminal prosecution are made, with the assistance of the third person, would have traded and ordered the additional purchase of 52,805,690 vaccine doses, totaling 1,005,498,687 euros, plus VAT, an amount constituting damage to the state budget,” the prosecutors state.