The Foundation For The Defense Of The Citizens Against State Abuses has asked the Romanian Parliament to urgently refer the case of the purchase of anti-COVID-19 vaccines to the Romanian Court of Auditors. The request comes after the Romanian state was ordered by a Belgian court to pay more than 600 million euro to Pfizer, an amount that could reach around 680 million euro with interest.
An inspection by the Court of Auditors of Romania, which analyzes the documents and assesses the circumstances of opportunity taken into account at the time of signing the contract that caused the damage to the Romanian state, is the first necessary step to identify the responsible individuals and to initiate measures to recover the damage.
According to Article 140 of the Romanian Constitution, the Court of Auditors exercises, at the request of the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate, control over the management of public resources. Within this framework, the Court of Auditors is the competent authority to identify the existence of any damage to the state budget, to determine the guilty parties and to order the necessary measures for the recovery of these amounts.
In 2021, during Florin Cîțu's term in office, with Ioana Mihăilă at the Ministry of Health, a third contract was concluded by Romania for another 39 million doses of anti-COVID vaccine. Shortly afterwards, in the explanatory memorandum of OG no. 49/2021, the Government pointed out that Romania had already contracted more than 56 million doses and recognized the existence of a significant excess, which exceeded the needs and storage capacity, with the risk that some of the vaccines could no longer be used.
FACIAS announced, immediately after the decision of the Brussels Court, that it would take action to hold to account those responsible for the damage and to recover the more than 600 million euros lost by Romania.