As 18 officials from the Bacău Health House stole over one million lei from the institution's money. The investigation has been extended at national level
A new scandal shakes the health system in Romania, after many employees of the County Health Insurance House Bacău are accused of setting up a fraud, by which they have stolen over one million lei public money, for three years.
Mia many employees of CJAS Bacău are accused of having misplaced over one million lei. Photo: Archive
A new case of fundraising has come to light, this time at the County Health Insurance House (CJAS) Bacău, where 18 employees are suspected of having over one million lei from the institution's budget, between 2022 and 2025.
Specifically, they would have requested advances for holidays, with the complicity of the management, and used this money for investments in real estate, notes the observer.
How the scheme worked
The investigation was initiated after the Court of Accounts discovered serious irregularities in the financial activity of the institution, and the National Health Insurance House (CNAS) was informed and confirmed the extent of the fraud.
“I discovered that the phenomenon is of a greater magnitude and we took measures immediately at the level of the management of Bacău health insurance houses, because we do not tolerate such behaviors. At the Bacău insurance house will come a management team from another county precisely because of the dimension of this phenomenon”, said Horaţiu Moldovan, president of CNAS.
The mechanism of fraud was as simple as possible: the employees requested generous advances for holidays, and the management approves the applications without asking for supporting documents. A special case was that of a director who would have received, in a single installment, money for 190 days of leave, ie over six months.
Although four service directors have lost their management positions, they continue to work in the institution.
“Decisions were issued to cease the functions they were holding, but they returned to the positions on which they were holders”, said Gabriela Luminiţa Grosu, general manager of CJAS Bacău.
“The amounts represented advances, allowances, rest holidays, it cannot be about amounts taken without informing the management. The amounts can be seen, it was a transparent thing,” said Ana-Maria Lungu, legal adviser within the institution.
Despite these statements, according to the same source, the exact value taken by the employees would not have been passed.
“The negative aspects regarding the payment of considerable amounts of money (of the order of hundreds of lei/year) (…) without having supporting documents and legal basis, as well as the incorrect highlighting of these amounts in the accounting records in question were discovered. CNAS also says.
For now, the employees involved cannot be fired until the investigation is completed, but they have the obligation to return the diverted amounts.
The new leadership, brought from another county, is still trying to understand the magnitude of the fraud.
The investigation has been extended at national level
As a preventive reaction, the National House of Health Insurance has expanded checks at national level.
“We asked the question if the same thing could not happen. We asked all the health insurance houses, some clues, on the basis of which we will be able to analyze if there are other behaviors, other punctual situations and in other counties”, said CNAS president Horaţiu Moldovan.
The management of CJAS Bacău officially asked CNAS for the new directors to be from other counties, to avoid any influence in the investigation.
