Anti-corruption prosecutors are investigating former Health Minister Nelu Tătaru on suspicion of taking dozens of bribes in the form of hens and eggs and relatively small sums of money.
Dr. Tataru, who denies wrongdoing, is being investigated on 57 counts of alleged bribery. Twenty-seven people are also being investigated for bribery, prosecutors said Thursday.
Health minister from March to December 2020 at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Tătaru is also chairman of the National Liberal Party Vaslui branch and was running for Parliament in December elections. Party chairman Nicolae Ciuca fired him when the investigation was announced.
Prosecutors searched the hospital in Husi where he works asRomania’s healthcare system is rife with bribery, a hold-over from the communist era when salaries were very low. Doctors and medical staff necessarily demand bribes, but patients slip money in envelopes into their medical coats which have generous pockets, despite it being illegal. a surgeon, and found video evidence of the former minister while taking bribes, G4Media reported.
In his most recent declaration of assets, which all public officials have to file, he reported owning two apartments, various bank accounts and having loans totaling over one million lei.
Romania’s healthcare system is rife with bribery and corruption, a holdover from the communist era when salaries were very low. Romania finally raised salaries in 2017, but the custom of offering ‘an envelope’ has continued. Doctors and medical staff don’t necessarily demand bribes, but patients slip envelopes with money into medical gowns which have generous pockets.
In a post on Facebook he professed his innocence. “I have never asked for and I have never conditioned the medical act.”
The prosecutors statement said: “Between April 3, 2024 and July 12, 2024, as a specialist doctor at the “Dimitrie Castroian” Huși Municipal Hospital, the suspect Tătaru Nelu allegedly received as bribes sums of money generally between 100 and 500 lei, as well as food, from 45 people (patients/relatives), connected to his duties as a specialist doctor, surgeries, patient consultation or writing prescriptions,” the prosecutors claim.
Some 27 people are suspected of offering bribes which is illegal in Romania.
The investigation continues.
