The National Integrity Authority (ANI) refuses to initiate a control on the verification of compliance with the legal regime of conflicts of interest regarding the former interim director of Termoelectrica S.A. Vasile Leu, in whose name an act was issued at the end of July, when he was still in office, to initiate a control on compliance with the legal regime of restrictions.

According to the minutes of the refusal to initiate the inspection of 11 August, this is the same referral of 13 July.

According to the complaint “it is requested to verify the submission of the declaration regarding conflicts of interest by Mr. Vasile Leu, director (interim) of Termoelectrica S.A. upon his appointment, as well as to verify the documents issued by ANRE and sent to Termoelectrica S.A., in which the increase in the purchase prices of goods from 300 -500% is attested… it is also stated that the appointment of Mr. Vasile Leu as general manager of the entity was made contrary to Law no. 82/2017, the Company’s Articles of Association and the Constitutional Court Decision no. 16/2021 because the acts signed by them are qualified as conflict of interest. At the same time, in the context of press data on the founding of the legal entity XXXXX in September 2022 and direct negotiations for the purchase of fuel oil, in the absence of experience, verification of Act No. 3 of 12.04.2023 and Act of Receipt-Purchase of Fuel Oil No. 2 of 31.03.2023, personally signed by Mr. Vasile Leu general manager, is requested. It is also mentioned that the signing of all the acts of delivery-receipt of fuel was carried out contrary to the RS-08 System Regulation, which expressly provides for the establishment of a committee, but this was done to the detriment of compliance with the regulatory framework – due to the existence of a conflict of interest…”.

ANI found that the complaint did not meet the requirements established by law and contacted the petitioner to request the submission of information from which it would reveal a possible violation of the legal regime of conflicts of interest within the meaning of Law no. 133/2016.

Thus, the petitioner indicated that it submits “the relevant documents confirming the violation of the procedure for delivery and receipt of fuel oil. The provisions of the System Regulation RS – 08 and the Regulation of the Purchasing Service have been violated. Moreover, all the press has been ruminating that XXXXX – is an economic operator that was registered in September 2022, and in October already concluded the Contract for delivery of fuel oil, through direct negotiations, without extensive practice in this field. The very signing of the act of Receipt-Purchase No. 2 dated 31.03.2023 by the general manager of the entity – means something or not, in the absence of the establishment of a commission in this regard…”.

“In the text of the complaint it is necessary to relate the act issued, the close person, the interest of the subject of the declarations in order to identify the evidentiary material from which the violation of the legal regime of conflicts of interest would arise.

The integrity inspector notes that the petitioner did not submit any information that would indicate that the actions/actions of the subject of the verification would violate the legal regime of conflicts of interest, but the complaint does not contain data on a conflict of interest situation.

(…) The Integrity Inspector does not have the competence to analyse (procedure) the actions of “increasing the purchase prices of goods”, “appointment to positions”, “establishment of commissions” and “negotiations in public procurement procedures”.

In the part related to the signing of acts by the subject of verification with the legal entity XXXXX, it is mentioned that according to the state information registers the founder and administrator of the legal entity is not Mr. Vasile Leu, but persons close to him, and some relations, according to the notion of conflict of interest, between XXXXX and the subject of verification, have not been established”, concluded the integrity inspector.

ZdG previously reported that ANI had ordered on Tuesday, July 25, the initiation of a control on compliance with the legal regime of restrictions, regarding Vasile Leu, then interim director of SA Termoelectrica.

Contacted by ZdG on Monday, August 14, Victor Moloșag, head of ANI’s Cooperation and Public Relations Service, said that the inspection is still ongoing and no finding has been issued.

The control initiated by ANI in July came then in the context of information appearing in the public space about a quantity of fuel oil that would have been buried on the company’s territory in autumn 2022.

In a reaction to the information appearing in the public space about the possible violation of the legal regime of restrictions, Termoelectrica conveyed at the time that the position of head of the Thermal Energy and Cogeneration Investment Section within ANRE, previously held by Termoelectrica’s interim general manager Vasile Leu, does not fall under the provisions of Law no. 133/2016 and is not subject to the legal regime of restrictions.

Vasile Leu resigned at the end of July and it was announced that the position will be filled by Iurie Razlovan.

Founded one month before signing the contract with Termoelectrica

In an investigation published in May, ZdG reported how Termoelectrica signed two contracts for the delivery of fuel oil, worth a total of US$13.9 million, with a company that had been registered just a month before – the company “Oil Platform” SRL. It was founded on September 12, 2022, and a month later, on October 13, 2022, it signed its first delivery contract with Termoelectrica, for a quantity of 4000 tons, at US$820/ton. In another month, the company is signing another contract, for the delivery of 12,000 tonnes of fuel oil, at a price of US$885/tonne, according to data provided by Termoelectrica, at the request of Ziarul de Gardă.

The founder and manager of the company is a young businessman, Andrian Cojocaru, who owns a 17 percent stake in two large electronics retail chains – “Enter” and “Darwin”. Andrian Cojocaru is the brother of another businessman, Ruslan Cojocaru, founder of the restaurant chains “Tucano” and “Oliva”. Cojocaru’s name came to public attention after he sold a house worth USD 393500 to former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development Andrei Spînu in 2018. The data can be found in the declaration of wealth filed by Andrei Spânu in August 2018, after he was appointed to the post of secretary general of the government. The amount is declared as a loan taken in 2018, due by 2020. Later, Andrei Spînu declared that he had in fact purchased a house from Ruslan Cojocaru. The debt no longer appears in the declaration submitted by Andrei Spînu at the end of 2019.