The officers of the National Anticorruption Center and the prosecutors of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office carried out searches in a case of abuse of office and high-profile fraud in which decision-makers of an economic agent and a public association are targeted. They are suspected of having obtained a grant of 14 million lei, following the rigging of a public auction and other illegalities.

The basis for the investigation was the Audit Report of the Court of Accounts on the consolidated financial reports of the Ministry of the Environment, which found that, in 2021, the National Ecological Fund (NEF) approved for financing the investment project "Creating Sustainable Solutions for Recycling Glass Shards”, in the amount of 14 million lei, the beneficiary of which was designated a public association, which at that stage did not have an environmental authorization for waste management.

In turn, the decision-makers of the Association, without respecting the principle of transparency in the organization of the public procurement process, manifested by the non-publication of the announcement regarding the auction, would have favored an economic agent from whom it procured various goods for the implementation of the project (sorting line, trucks and dumpsters). During the operational analysis carried out per case, it was found that the decision-makers within the beneficiary Association and the contracted economic agent are affiliated persons, and their offices are located at the same address. Respectively, both the members of the Association and the contracted economic agent would have acted in complicity, pursuing a common material interest, a fact materialized by fraudulently obtaining the aforementioned investment project.

Thus, in order to accumulate evidentiary material, searches were carried out today at the homes of 3 extras, as well as at the offices of the mentioned association and economic agent. Mobile phones, documents related to the case and financial means, whose provenance could not be proven, were taken from the scene.

The Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office is conducting the criminal investigation.