Mayor Firea involved in new scandal related to overestimated prices for the construction of Gomoiu Hospital in Buharest

After the row stirred by Bucharest mayor’s statements slamming the private initiative of “Daruieste Viata” NGO of building a hospital for children with cancer exclusively from private donations, the public opinion and mass media reacted and criticised Gabriela Firea’s stance through which she wanted to also take credit for the hospital’s initiative.

Moreover, mayor Firea is boasting that she had also built a hospital, “Victor Gomoiu” in Bucharest. However, the construction of the new building of Gomoiu hospital had been started during Sorin Oprescu’s mandate as Bucharest mayor and the current mayor Firea had taken over the building when it was already 85% concluded.

Besides, “Libertatea” newspaper released the data of a report conducted by the Government’s Control Body regarding the period 2012-2017 showing that the public procurement prices of the hospital’s equipment had been overestimated even by 2,485%.

Furthermore, mayor Firea would have allotted huge sums for advertising on radio and TV to promote the City Hall’s image in building Gomoiu Hospital. Out of the EUR 46 M budget, EUR 1.1 M has been allotted to buy radio and TV advertising for a period of time.

Europa FM came out today admitting it was among the radio stations that received the City Hall’s advertisement, but announced it would return the sums in sign of protest against mayor Firea’s recent stances. Europa FM also announced it will give advertising spaces for free to support the initiative of “Daruieste Viata” to build a private hospital for children with cancer.

In retort to “Libertatea” disclosures, Gabriela Firea announced she will sue the journalists and the newspaper managers after reporting about alleged illegalities on the Gomoiu Hospital’s equipment, denying any illegality committed during her mandate.

“The payments were legal and the prices were correct, not overestimated. If something was done, it was not during my mandate. Maybe they were in the previous years”, Firea said, adding the constructors consortium who built Gomoiu Hospital had indeed sue the City Hall, but the municipality won the trial.