Romania: Ex-Health Minister investigates taking bribes for eggs and chickens

Anti-corruption prosecutors are investigating former Health Minister Nelu Tătaru on suspicion of taking dozens of bribes in the form of chickens and eggs and relatively small sums of money.

Dr. Tataru, who denies wrongdoing, is being investigated on 57 charges for alleged bribery. Twenty-seven people are also under investigation for bribery, prosecutors said Thursday.

Dr. Tătaru, Minister of Health from March to December 2020, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, is also chairman of the National Liberal Party’s Vaslui branch and ran for Parliament in the December elections. Party chairman Nicolae Ciuca fired him when the investigation was announced.

Prosecutors searched the hospital in Husi where he works because Romania’s health care system is rife with bribery, a holdover from the communist era, when salaries were very low. Doctors and medical staff necessarily demand bribes, but patients put money in envelopes in their medical gowns, which have generous pockets, despite this being illegal. a surgeon, and found video evidence of the former minister taking bribes, G4Media reported.

In his most recent wealth declaration, which all government officials must submit, he reported that he owned two apartments, had several bank accounts and loans totaling more than one million lei.

The Romanian healthcare system is rife with bribery and corruption, a holdover from the communist era, when salaries were very low. Romania finally increased salaries in 2017, but the practice of offering ‘an envelope’ has persisted. Doctors and medical staff do not necessarily demand bribes, but patients stuff envelopes of money into medical gowns with generous pockets.

He professed his innocence in a post on Facebook. “I never asked for the medical procedure and never imposed conditions on it.”

The prosecutor’s statement said: “Between April 3, 2024 and July 12, 2024, the suspect Tătaru Nelu, as a specialist doctor at the municipal hospital “Dimitrie Castroian” Huși, allegedly received as bribes amounts generally between 100 and 500 lei, as well as food , of 45 people (patients/family members), related to his duties as a specialist doctor, operations, patient consultations or writing prescriptions,” the prosecutors allege.

About 27 people are suspected of offering bribes, which is illegal in Romania.

The investigation continues.

Articolul Romania: Ex-Health Minister investigated egg stealing and chicken bribery on Universul.net.