The NAC and the anti-corruption prosecutors of the AP have carried out criminal prosecution actions at the Material Reserves Agency (MRA) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) in a case of abuse of office aimed at the alleged illegalities committed in the organization of public procurement procedures, carried out during 2022 -2024. The case was started by the AP in September 2023, and later four other criminal cases were connected to the basic file.

According to the administered materials, the MRA decision-makers are suspected of favoring some economic agents to win public tenders regarding the purchase of fuel oil reserves, wheat, sugar, some technical equipment and vehicles. Thus, it was found that, in the period 2022-present, the head of the State Material Reserves Administration Directorate of the MRA, by prior agreement with the president of the working group in the field of public procurement and the deputy head of the MRA, intentionally abusing their functional duties, acting in material, personal interest, as well as in the interest of third parties, would have taken actions in order to designate some economic agents as winners of the auctions organized by the MRA regarding the purchase, through direct negotiations, of the reserves of various goods and machinery, a fact which they caused particularly large damages to the state budget.

In fact, following investigations and criminal prosecution actions, deviations were found in the organization of the procedure for the purchase of fuel oil reserves, carried out during 2022, with the use of the negotiation method without the prior publication of a notice of participation, a fact that generated the acceptance of a more expensive offer by 58.4 million lei when contracting 14.5 thousand tons of fuel oil, the requested quantity of 16.5 thousand tons of fuel oil being reduced by 2.0 thousand tons, which generated additional expenses from the state budget in the amount mentioned above. Also, for the purchase, in 2022, of wheat reserves, it was accepted to accept a more expensive offer of 11.3 million lei for contracting 33.2 thousand tons of food wheat, as the difference between the price announced in the award documentation and offer accepted. In the procedure for the purchase of a motor vehicle, in which the rules for the description of goods (restrictive technical specifications) were not respected, which limited the competition between economic operators, and the technical parameters taken as a whole and the estimated value of the purchase referred to a certain model of vehicle, a damage was caused in the amount of 26 thousand euros (according to the official exchange rate of the National Bank of Moldova, it is 490,360 lei.

In 2023, the procedure for the purchase of 400 tons of sugar worth 6,692,592.59 lei was organized, using the negotiation method without prior publication of a notice of participation and restricting the participation of other bidders, with the information only of a single economic agent. Also, during this period, the procedure for the purchase of 16 thousand tons of fuel oil was organized, by favoring a single economic agent, and in the acceptance documents a smaller quantity was indicated than the de facto delivered one.

In other episodes, the procedures for the purchase of technical equipment reserves are investigated, also by circumventing the legal procedures: mini-excavator - 3 units worth 2,324,166 lei; tracked excavator - 1 unit with an estimated value of 1,837,500 lei; mobile crane - 1 unit with an estimated value of 2,785,000 lei.

Currently, the National Anti-corruption Centre and the Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office are carrying out actions to establish and document all the persons involved in the mentioned illegal actions with the establishment of the total damage caused to the state budget and their criminal liability. Following the searches, the deputy director of the MRA and the head of the State Material Reserves Administration Directorate of the MRA were detained.

The Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office is carrying out the criminal investigation jointly with the NAC. We remind that any person is presumed to be innocent until a final and irrevocable court decision is issued, and investigations in this case continue.