Nepotism Exposed: 10 Cases of Nepotism at Dolj Public Health Authority; Director, Sister, Husband-Wife, and More Among Ten Employees Linked by Family Ties; A DSP employee charged with inspecting hospitals, also uses his company to provide market consultancy for hospitals; Cases reported by two integrity whistleblowers

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Two integrity whistleblowers have reported to G4Media 10 cases of nepotism at the Dolj Public Health Directorate (DSP), most of which have since checked out. The management of the institution refused to talk to G4Media.ro. The institution director, who works with his sister, briefly explained the situation and then did not answer the phone: „They must have been hired through a contest”. Even the head of human resources, the department that organizes recruitment competitions, has a son in the legal department, according to the institution’s organization chart and integrity whistleblowers who contacted G4Media.ro.

In addition, one of the employees, who also works with his wife, does business with hospitals while his firm provides consulting for hospitals. Public Health Directorates in a county are seemingly insignificant institutions, but they play an extremely important role. In the case of pandemics and epidemics, for example, they play a crucial role in protecting the civilian population, by checking, granting or withdrawing operating permits for hospitals, for example, but also for private companies.

We invite all readers to report instances of nepotism in the institutions in which they work to the editorial office: [email protected]
The practice of employing relatives at the DSP Dolj has a long tradition. It started during the time of the former director Ludmila Prunariu, appointed in the Ponta government. The director retired in the spring of 2020, shortly after the pandemic outbreak. Since then, almost all the parliamentary parties (PNL, USR-PLUS, UDMR) have been in charge of the Ministry of Health, and three directors have changed at DSP Dolj. In each mandate, the institution has hired relatives.

„Many were hired in the pandemic, on a fixed-term contract, and the contract was later changed to an indefinite period,” one of the whistleblowers explained to G4Media.

Valeria Andreescu was appointed head of the DSP in Ludovic Orban’s government during the height of the pandemic. She lasted about a year. Her husband worked in the administrative department, and they are no longer with the institution. In the summer of 2021, when Iuliana Manea was appointed to DSP Dolj, the Ministry of Health was headed by Ioana Mihăilă, USR-PLUS. In May 2022, Minister Alexandru Rafila (PSD) appointed Viorel Dorin Micu to the post.

The „genealogical tree” at DSP Dolj

Lili Gacea has headed the human resources department for 11 years. She also has a son in the institution, employed as a lawyer – Radu Gacea. We asked her to explain the phenomenon of nepotism, but she told us she has no authority to discuss it with the press. Her colleague in human resources, Elena Păunescu, has a husband employed in the administrative department. Another HR colleague, Violeta Stanca, has a daughter employed as a pharmacist in the institution. Even the current director, Viorel Dorin Micu, has a sister who has been employed for many years, also in human resources.

We also called the current director to explain the phenomenon at DSP Dolj, but he hung up the phone shortly after, saying he was in a meeting at the County Council. „They must have put out positions for selection and they applied for them, I wasn’t in those committees to answer,” he told us. Subsequently, we were unable to contact him.

The list doesn’t end. Gabriela Lohon, at the cashier’s office, has her son Andrei Lohon employed in the administrative department, according to the two whistleblowers consulted by G4Media.ro.

Luminița Mitroi, a lawyer, has a granddaughter, Bianca Ștefănescu, employed at the laboratory. Nicolae Marcu, the institution’s economic director, also has his wife employed as an assistant in an external department. We also asked for an explanation from the institution’s spokesperson, Ștefan Popescu. He replied that he was only aware of some of the cases we had reported to him.

Florentin Niculescu works as a physicist in the Radiation Hygiene Laboratory. His wife, Flavia, joined him in the institution last year, but the husband says he does not know exactly what she does. „I’m in one office, she’s in another office, we’re not in the same department, I don’t even know the name of the department she’s in. I didn’t interfere anywhere,” the physicist replied.

Hired by the DSP to check hospitals while his company does business with hospitals
Florentin Niculescu has recently obtained a position as a member of the Board of Directors of the Craiova County Emergency Hospital and at the same time wins consultancy contracts (through his firm Primus Advising) with hospitals in Dolj and neighboring counties.

These are the CFR Clinical Hospital and the Military Emergency Hospital in Craiova. These institutions offered him a total of 22,000 lei for „medical physicist and radiation protection consultancy”, according to documents published in the SEAP electronic public procurement system. It also had contracts with the Caracal Municipal Hospital, while Olt County is also covered by DSP Dolj. Florentin Niculescu explained that there is no conflict of interest because his boss is very careful not to send him to check on the hospitals that are his clients at his company.

• „I take them from SICAP (n.r. public tender platform), I have no contact with managers, only with Purchasing and with doctors, who when they need these calculations for patients, I make them. I do field work, but not at those units, the head of the laboratory knows about the situation and precisely to avoid this alleged conflict, he does not send me to those units”, Florentin Niculescu explained to G4Media.

A recent case of nepotism in the central structures is that of the PSD Minister of Agriculture, Petre Daea, who has several family members subordinate to the institutions of the ministry he heads: daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law and wife. Most recently, the minister’s daughter-in-law, Antonia Luchian (32), who was hired in 2020 as an adviser at the Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture, joined the „club”. Previously, she worked for her own firm of „dance classes” and „event dancers”.

At the time of her employment, Daea was not a minister, but the head of human resources at the Payments Agency was his wife, Antonia’s mother-in-law. In Daea’s previous term as minister, from 2017-2019, his daughter – at the Agency for Rural Investment Financing – and his son-in-law – at the National Agency for Animal Husbandry – were employed in two institutions under the Ministry of Agriculture.

• On the issue of preferential hiring at the state, PSD President Marcel Ciolacu said last month at a Coalition meeting, „Do you think I will tell Caciu (the finance minister – e.n.) to kill the public employees? No salary cuts. People must be reassured. Instead, I don’t want any more debauchery in the state with thousands of hirings and all kinds of connections. (..) Dorneanu earns 120,000 lei a month. The former attorney general (Augustin Lazăr – editor’s note) has 130,000 lei. Marcel Ciolacu: It does no good to keep passing it from one to another. It doesn’t help us. I see that when it’s good, it’s good for everyone, when it’s bad, it’s bad only for some.”

Daea’s current wife, Camelia Luchian, was the trailblazer, however, initially employed as vice-president of the National Agency for Fisheries and Aquaculture and then director of the Agency for Payments and Intervention for Agriculture, where she is currently a colleague of his daughter-in-law.

We invite all readers to report instances of nepotism in the institutions where they work to the editorial office: [email protected]