The former mayor of Regina, Maria Precup, and three employees of the local administration were sent to the DNA court, accused of illegally purchasing hand sanitizer during the pandemic, which was not authorized for sale in Romania, at a price 545% higher than the original price supplier price.

Prosecutors of the Territorial Service of Tirgu-Mureş ordered the following persons to be sent to court:

• Maria Prekup, at the time of the crime, the mayor of Regin Municipality, Mures County, for the crime of abuse of office,
• Mirela Minodora Radoi, during the performance of the duties of the General Secretary of Regin Municipality, Mures County, for complicity in the crime of abuse of office,
• Nataliya-Ramona Moldovan, at the time of the act, adviser to the Department of Public Procurement, project management of the Regina City Hall, for: complicity in the crime of abuse of official position,
• incitement to the crime of intellectual forgery and use of forgery,
• Krina-Kristiana Slev, at the time of the crime, adviser to the mayor of the municipality of Regin, for complicity in the crime of abuse of official position,
• A natural person, an administrator of a commercial company, for complicity in committing the crime of abuse of official position.

Allegations made by DNA

In the indictment, DNA prosecutors show that:

• In the period from 02.04 to 26.06.2020, Maria Pretsup, while in the above-mentioned position, using the help of other defendants, in violation of the law, allegedly approved the illegal payment of the businessman’s company, sent to the court in the city in this case for the total amount of 456,960 lei (including with VAT), which is the cost of 3,000 liters of hand sanitizer that was not authorized for sale in Romania and could be purchased at a price 545% higher than the supplier’s initial price.
• At the time of the indictment, there was no website in another language that listed the corresponding hand sanitizer with a label in Romanian, with a translation of the chemical composition and how to use it.
• In particular, in order to “circumvent” the legal provisions that imposed on public institutions a threshold of 135,060 lei, up to which the customer could directly purchase products and services, Precup would divide the order into four separate contracts.
• In the case of one of them, the order would have been paid in advance, since the amount of disinfectant was not even purchased by the commercial company of the entrepreneur referred to the court in this case.
• Part of the documents (four need reports) that would have been the basis for the purchase of the indicated quantity of disinfectant were drawn up and certified earlier by Adrian-Ioan Moldovan-Verdesh, as an adviser in the Civil Defence. Department at the Regina City Hall, on the initiative of Nataliya Moldovan Nataliya-Ramona.

DNA says that precautionary measures have been taken in this case, and Regina City Hall has become a civil plaintiff in the case with the above amount. The case was referred to the court of Mures.

In November 2022, anti-corruption prosecutors entered into a plea agreement with Adrian Moldovan-Verdes, charged with four counts of intellectual forgery. He admitted his actions, accepting a sentence of one year and four months of imprisonment with a suspended sentence of 2 years of supervision.