A governmental body checking for government-related irregularities will urge the state protocol administration RAAPPS to sue a law firm run by a former presidential aide to recover payments the latter received for unfulfilled services.
The announcement was made days after ex-presidential aide Elena Udrea accused the prime minister - to whom the Government Control Body (ACG) is subordinated - of traffic of influence.
The law firm run by Elena Udrea - known as the “Cotroceni blonde”, after the name of the Cotroceni Palace, the presidential headquarters in Bucharest - is said to have received payments of up to 2.35 billion ROL from RAAPPS in contracts spanning less than two years.
But despite that it provided little to no services to its client, which would amount to illegal activities, according to the Government Control Body.
The contracts ran in 2003-2004, before Udrea was named presidential counselor after Democrat Traian Basescu was elected president of the country. Udrea, who later left the post following a series of controversies linked to the close collaboration between her husband, a businessman, and Basescu, has remained a prominent representative of the Democratic Party.
That included a recent attack on prime minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, known for his rivalry with President Basescu with whom he forms a difficult power-sharing alliance. Udrea said last week she had knowledge of a notification sent by Tariceanu to President Basescu a couple of years ago, urging him to intervene in favor of oil mogul and PM’s friend Dinu Patriciu.
At the time, Patriciu faced a series of troubles with anti-corruption prosecutors.
In a TV show on Tuesday evening, Udrea defended herself against the Government Control Body charges, saying that the report contains a series of false data related to her cases with RAAPPS.
HotNews.ro, Jan 16, 2007
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