UPDATE: At date de 11.07.2023
- Mihaela Ungureanu has been suspended from her position as director general of DGASPC Sector 3.
- Bogdan Iulian Pîntea has been suspended as director of DGASPC Ilfov.
- Andrei Răzvan Țicu- arrested in the case of the horror asylums. According to DIICOT, as head of the DGASPC Ilfov, he allegedly provided advice and assistance to the criminal group that owned the Voluntari horror shelters, thus helping to cover up the illegalities.
Press release on: 04.07.2023
The Foundation for the Defense of the Citizen Against State Abuses (FACIAS) has noted with stupefaction the incredible case of people with disabilities held in asylums in concentration camp conditions, beaten, starved and humiliated by two criminal groups, in complicity with public institutions in Ilfov County and Sector 3 of the Capital.
FACIAS believes that, in addition to the common criminals who masterminded this operation, which police representatives call "exploitation of people with disabilities or in vulnerable situations", the heads of DGASPC Ilfov and Sector 3 who paid from public money for social services to the NGO owned by these criminal groups are also responsible. We believe that such situations, which are unacceptable in an EU Member State, must not be repeated and that those responsible must pay for their actions.
Given the seriousness of the facts we request the following:
1. FACIAS demands the dismissal of Iulian Bogdan Pîntea, director of DGASPC ILFOV and Razvan Ticu - head of the service that manages the problems of adults with disabilities within DGASPC Ilfov. According to the press, the latter has seen the place where the elderly are kept and said he does not find it serious at all.
2. FACIAS demands the resignation of the director of DGASPC, Mihaela Ungureanu, for the way she checked (or not) the conditions in which people with disabilities were kept in the private centre paid by public money. DGASPC Sector 3 allegedly concluded social care service contracts with the NGO under investigation, without the association having an operating licence.
3. FACIAS asks the Ministry of Labour to ask the Social Inspectorate to carry out checks on all public and private homes for the elderly. In Romania there are a lot of illegal, unaccredited and unlicensed homes where the Ministry of Labour, through its subordinate institutions, should carry out checks and apply sanctions. The Ministry of Labour certifies companies and NGOs as providers of social services and is therefore primarily responsible.
4. FACIAS calls on the Ombudsman to carry out investigations in all old people's homes in the country and make them public. The Ombudsman has the power to inspect old people's homes in order to prevent cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in places of detention. FACIAS is a partner of the Ombudsman.