The government-controlled Voluntary television did not notice that the city of Ilfov was stormed on Tuesday morning. Police cars, firefighters, SMURD, police and DIICOT attended hostels where vulnerable people were suspected of being subjected to inhumane treatment. In total, 98 people were rescued. Most of them went to the hospital for examination.

• Old people were kept like a camp in private houses in Voluntar, with wounds to the bone and full of feces. “Conditions in Auschwitz. Begging by the fence, naked”

I watched with interest how Metropola TV will tell about a large-scale law enforcement operation in the city guarded by Florentin Pandele, husband of Gabriela Firea, Minister of the Family from 2022.

Stupor! The raids that all the TV stations were trumpeting about were actually carried out by invisible people if you watched the TV channel, which is on the list of must-have channels to be taken over by cable operators, as early as 2021, after the CNA decision.

In short, Metropola TV is controlled by the city of Voluntari through the city council, for which the company PUBLIVOL CREATIV SA, headquartered at Strada Mihai Viteazul no. 34.

The company is the owner of the license for the national audiovisual program called MetropolaTV TV, which is also listed on the TV channel’s website.

CL Voluntari has 19 members, 12 of whom are PSD representatives, including Florin-Valeria Pandele, the mayor’s cousin.

I’ve been following along on Facebook and other social media, thinking I may have missed reports on this topic. On Facebook, in the afternoon news, the main news were:

• The Bucharest-Budapest train stayed in the field for 6 hours
• A criminal hiding from people in masks on the sofa
• Mourning in the Republic of Moldova in honor of the fallen officers at Chisinau airport

Separately, there was talk about the bill on the ban on smoking in cars in the presence of minors, a possible increase in house and land tax, and a record number of appeals from this year’s ZNO.

I went to the website of Metropol TV in the hope that I would find information there. There are news reports of large-scale searches in Bucharest and 6 districts, with details of the police investigation and the damage caused, but nowhere is it mentioned that the facts took place in Voluntar itself.

And the journalists of the TV channel seem to be familiar with quoting sources other than press agencies. A news story titled “Marcel Colacu made an important statement on the abolition of fiscal benefits” cites the Romanian Prime Minister’s statement, citing Antena 3.

On Friday evening, the most important news on the website, in the first three positions, were: a large wave of appeals for the National Assessment Appeal, the Day of the Romanian Red Cross and the person who photographed the items at BAC 2023 and released them was identified.

Complete silence on Metropola TV.

I watched the evening news from 10:30 p.m., in the slot where most viewers usually watch. In 22 minutes, not even 30 seconds, the shocking revelations in Voluntar were reported, in a file in which the IGPR claims there is also a loss of 8.7 million lei.

Instead, the news featured a man who broke into a kiosk to steal two thousand lei worth of cigarettes.

Before Tuesday’s descents, the horrors of the Volunteer hostels attracted the attention of investigative series.

Terrible conditions in nursing homes were revealed as early as February 2023 by a journalistic investigation by Buletin de București and Centrul de Investigații Media.

According to the investigation, an organization founded by people close to Gabriela Firea received €30,000 a month from the Sector 3 City Hall, headed by Robert Negoitz, to care for people with disabilities in a shelter in Piepera, Voluntari, but in fact no medical services were provided.

It is about the Armonia center of the Association of St. Gabriel the Brave, which is owned by Ligia Gheorghe (formerly Enake) and Stefan Godea, close friends of Gabriela Firea and her husband Florentin Pandele, mayor of Voluntari, according to investigative journalists.

Where did Ligia Gheorghe work?

Ligia Gheorghe is an old acquaintance of Gabriela Firea. They have worked together in a media group controlled by Dan Voiculescu since 2004, according to a resume posted on the website of BTT, Youth Tourism Office SA.

We might have thought there was a close connection between them after Gheorghe borrowed €15,000 from Firea in 2011, this is shown in the 2016 wealth declaration, when he was listed as head of service at Green City in Voluntari, a company , which deals with green spaces owned by local authorities.

Gheorghe became a long-term adviser to Gabriela Firea from 2012 to the present, during which she held public positions: parliamentarian, mayor of Bucharest, parliamentarian again, and now minister of family, youth and equal opportunities.

In his resume, Gheorghe mentions that he worked for Metropola tv until 2021, but this contradicts the income for 2022 declared in June 2023.

According to the wealth declaration published in June 2023, Ligia Gheorghe had an author’s contract with Metropola TV for 84,000 lei during 2022, although in her resume she mentions that she worked as a public relations specialist for the company that controls the channel , from November 2020. and July 2021

It doesn’t list the company or the TV station, just an address that corresponds to the head office of the company that controls the TV.

Seat in two boards of directors

Over the past year, we can say that Ligia Gheorghe’s resume has become even richer. In addition to her position in the ministry led by Gabriela Firea and the contract with Metropola TV, she was on two boards of directors of some state-owned companies: in BTT in the fall of 2022 and in SN Plafar SA in early 2023, according to its wealth declarations. submitted after appointment, published on the website of the National Integrity Agency.

The shareholders of SN Plafar SA are the Romanian state through the Ministry of Economy and Fondul Proprietatea.

In BTT, according to the statute, the majority shareholder was the Ministry of Youth and Sports, but it was canceled after the formation of a new government headed by Marcel Cholaku.

Ligiia Gheorghe received approximately 15,000 lei from BTT for attending CA meetings in 2022.

The Ministry of the Family intervenes

After the press reported that Ligia Gheorghe was the vice president of an association that looked after homes where residents were tortured rather than cared for, the Ministry of Family Affairs felt the need to send a press release stating that “Minister Gabriela Firea is not involved in this case, he was not aware of the activities of the centers and associations mentioned in this investigation. In addition, the only connection with the minister is that for a short time one of the advisers was part of the leadership of this association.”

The Ministry of Family Affairs said on Tuesday afternoon that Ligia Gheorghe is a witness in the case and that she resigned from the association shortly after being hired as a personal adviser to the Minister of Family Affairs.

• “The information provided to the Minister and the Ministry of Ms. GL was that she no longer holds the unpaid position of Vice President of the St. Gabriel the Brave Association, her resignation taking place in March 2022, shortly after she joined the Ministry. This was proved by the resignation letter submitted by Ms. G.L. and registered at the head office of the respective association under no. 248/21.03.2022.
• In addition, Ms. GL informed the institution that she did not monitor how the association complied with its request, as the refusal was a unilateral act. Ms. GL clarified that she was surprised to learn only when contacted by reporters at the end of 2022 that she was still on that Board of Directors. Immediately after that, he requested an explanation from the management of the association and asked to urgently fulfill the request for resignation.
• Currently, according to the information available to us, Mrs. G.L. is no longer a member of the Board of Directors of the Association. Minister Gabriela Firea is not associated with the centers mentioned in the relevant investigation, nor with the association.
• Statements about the relationship between Minister Gabriela Firea and Mrs. GL, apart from friendship and collegiality, are tendentious and have the role of distorting reality,” the ministry under Gabriela Firea said, quoted by news.ro.

Two state institutions responsible for social assistance and child protection are also under investigation.

According to the Observer News, it is about DGASPC Ilfov and DGASPC Sector 3.

They are accused of failure to notify and abuse of services after several contracts for the provision of social services for adults were transferred from 2021 to now to the association that manages the Voluntari and Afumați homes without an operating license. turned off

DIICOT announced on Wednesday morning that 24 people had been arrested and two had been taken into judicial custody after raids at centers for vulnerable people.

During Tuesday, 31 searches were carried out in Bucharest and in the counties of Ilfov, Ialomica, Calarasi, Constanta, Olt and Arges.