The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has confirmed that it is investigating contracts worth 20 million euros that the Romanian health minister allegedly made during the pandemic with former partners at the World Health Organization (WHO).
The EPPO confirmed to Universul.net by email that prosecutors were investigating allegations made against the minister of possible wrongdoing. They provided no further details at this stage in the investigation.
Health Minister Alexandru Rafila has not commented since the case became public on July 24. Universul.net has contacted the health ministry for comment.
The probe centers on whether it was legitimate and legal for Dr. Rafila to award European Union funds for the alleged contracts in this way, according to Emanuel Ungureanu, lawmaker of the opposition Save Romania Union (USR).
Mr. Ungureanu who initiated a complaint to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in March 2024, said the money said the money should have been spent on “building new hospitals not on consultancy.”
The lawmaker previously wrote to former Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca about the alleged contracts who subsequently sent internal auditors to the ministry, he told Universul.net. He said no information was released about the outcome of the audit.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) was set up in 2019 and is tasked with investigating serious financial crimes affecting the EU’s interests.
In his complaint, Mr. Ungureanu, who is the vice-president of the Health Commission of the Chamber of Deputies claimed that Dr. Rafila handed out contracts on a discretionary basis to former partners in the WHO and had been secretive about them.
Mr. Ungureanu said that European recovery funds can be used for consultancy in cases where the health or other ministries are lacking specialists in a certain field.
“He has never spoken publicly about these contracts,” Mr. Ungureanu said in a phone interview with Universul.net on July 25. “These (European) funds… should be stopped when there is no justification.”
Dr. Rafila was a member of WHO’s Executive Committee of between 2014 and 2017.He also was Romania’s WHO representative on the steering committee until 2021, until he was appointed health minister.
Romania’s health system is chronically underfunded and plagued by politicized management and corruption. Thousands of medics have emigrated in recent years.
