Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
Transparency of the manner in which public money is spent and accountability for decisions that drain the state budget are fundamental obligations of a responsible government towards their citizens. When the Romanian state is forced to pay hundreds of millions of euros for a damaging contract, citizens are entitled to know who caused this disaster and what the Government is doing to hold the responsible persons accountable.
FACIAS requested clear answers about the huge bill imposed on Romania by the Brussels court in the anti-COVID vaccine procurement case. Specifically, the Romanian state must pay Pfizer 600 million euros, plus penalty interest of 150,000 euros per day. We asked you whether the Government had fought this decision and when you were to pay the money. More importantly, we requested you to tell us clearly whether you will take legal action against the people guilty of this financial disaster, former dignitaries and civil servants, so that the damage may be recovered from them, and not from the pockets of citizens.
The answer received from the Prime Minister's Chancellery does not clarify any of these questions. We were told that the decision "is not subject to an ordinary or extraordinary appeal", and regarding the liability for the 600 million euro damage, we were evasively told that "these aspects are the responsibility of state institutions with specific responsibilities".
Mr. Prime Minister, the immediate reality is that the decision of the Belgian court is already generating critical financial consequences for the Romanian state. Recently, ROMATSA's accounts were targeted by a precautionary-executive seizure procedure for the amount of over 3.4 billion lei, an action initiated by Pfizer that directly endangers the funds intended for air traffic services collected from Eurocontrol. This situation shows that we are facing a financial crisis with direct effects on the national infrastructure.
Given the seriousness of this situation, we ask the Executive to immediately initiate steps to hold all those responsible accountable for causing the damage in the Pfizer Contract.
We ask you to clearly tell the Romanians, by name, which public authorities you have notified and which are to identify and hold the guilty parties accountable. It is the Government's obligation to formulate redress actions to recover direct damages from the responsible persons.
Romanians want to know from what source the 600 million euros plus interest will be paid!
Mr. Prime Minister, Romanians should not have to pay out of their own pockets for abusive decisions made by people who irresponsibly contracted, possibly in violation of the law, in serious negligence or in bad faith, millions of vaccine doses, far beyond the real needs of the Romanian population. Tell Romanians who is responsible for the 600 million euro bill and hold the guilty parties accountable, not the citizens!