“Gross fake”. A company that appears among the winners of the contract for the Cluj Metropolitan Belt denies that it participated in the auction

The tender for the Cluj Metropolitan Belt was won last year by Dimex 2000 SRL, in partnership with a company from Bosnia and one from Bulgaria. A contract of 4.7 billion lei. But one of the companies in the partnership says that, in fact, it did not register for the auction, thus the whole procedure was flawed, reports the investigative website Public Record.

• The Bosnian company states that it is the victim of a fraud through the falsification of documents submitted by the Romanians from Dimex, the leaders of the association that had the only bid at the belt auction. “There is not and never has been a partnership between Integral inženjering ad Laktaši and HydrostroyAD from Bulgaria and the Dimex 2000 company from Romania.”
• Dimex 2000 says it cannot comment on the contract: “It contains express confidentiality clauses.”
• And the mayor of Cluj, Emil Boc, claims that “all the legal obligations of a contracting authority” have been respected. “According to the law, the responsibility for the content and correctness of the documents submitted during the procedure rests exclusively with the bidder,” says Boc.

Last year DNA prosecutors searched the town hall led by Emil Boc for this contract, notes Public Record, which recalls that Ioan Scurtu, the Dimex associate, was sentenced in 2015 to two years in prison with suspension after he drew up false documents to obtain other public contracts and after he tried to bribe a prosecutor to get out of trouble.

The Pro Infrastructure Association, one of the organizations in the civil society that closely follows the progress of the major infrastructure projects in the country, for its part, on Wednesday, reports this case – “a gross fake never seen in the Cluj belt”.

“In the light of such information, to the extent that it is confirmed by the case prosecutors, the only solution for the project to go forward is the emergency termination of the contract, its takeover by CNAIR or CNIR and the relaunch of the tender. Anything else is a form of evasion of responsibility or postponement that will indefinitely block the development of the investment. […] And as for Mr. Boc and the members of his administration who evaluated the Dimex offer and found nothing wrong with it, we must find out if we are talking about gross incompetence or criminal complicity”, say those from Pro Infrastructura.

Company announcement from Bosnia

“There is not and never has been a partnership between Integral inženjering ad Laktaši and HydrostroyAD from Bulgaria and the company Dimex 2000 from Romania. The alleged representatives of Dimex 2000 contacted us on September 27, 2024 with an offer of cooperation in the Cluj bypass project, but we rejected this cooperation in writing, first on October 2, 2024, then again on October 15, 2024. After that, the authorized persons of Integral inženjering had no further contact with the respective companies. I never authorized any other person to communicate, negotiate, deliver or sign documents of any kind with them,” the representatives of the Bosnian company Integral Inženjering said, according to Public Record.

What the people from Dimex 2000 say

The Dimex 2000 company claims that it cannot comment on the contract: “We inform you that, at this moment, the contract you are referring to contains express confidentiality clauses that clearly limit our ability to provide public information regarding the detailed status of the documentation, the progress of the contract, any difficulties encountered or legal issues arising during the implementation” – the company representative sent.

What Mayor Emil Boc says

Emil Boc told Public Record that the winning company – Dimex – signed the contract based on the documents required by law.

“Regarding the award of the contract, we emphasize that all the legal obligations of a contracting authority have been respected. The evaluation procedure was carried out under the supervision of ANAP, it was carried out by an evaluation committee with co-opted experts, in compliance with the applicable legal framework, and the report of the procedure was endorsed with unconditional approval by ANAP. Also, prior to signing the contract, the European Commission confirmed the fulfillment of the necessary legal steps. (…) When we were notified by Integral, last fall, I immediately proceeded to institutional checks and notified the DNA”.

“Regarding possible suspicions related to the authenticity of the documents submitted, they do not belong to the competence of the contracting authority. According to the law, the responsibility for the content and correctness of the documents submitted during the procedure rests exclusively with the bidder,” Mayor Emil Boc also declared.

Dimex and the corruption files

The contract of approximately 4.7 billion lei for the Cluj-Napoca Metropolitan Belt was awarded to the companies: Dimex 2000 Company SRL from Bistrița, Hydrostroy AD from Bulgaria and Inzenjering AD Laktasi from Bosnia.

Dimex 2000 Company SRL is owned by entrepreneurs Ioan and Neluta Lucretia Scurtu from Bistrița-Năsăud.

In 2022, Ioan Scurtu and the company in which he is associated were sent to court in a corruption case.

DNA Cluj prosecutors discovered that the company Dimex had drawn up false documents regarding the place where the broken stone used for the modernization of some forest roads came from. More precisely, it had been extracted illegally from the former Colbu mine in Prundu Bârgăului commune, reports the Public Record website.

At the same time, Ioan Scurtu was sentenced in 2015, for buying influence, to two years in prison with a suspended sentence under supervision for a four-year probationary period. He built a bridge to the villa of a prosecutor in Bistrita Năsăud, and in exchange for free work, the magistrate was going to help him obtain a favorable solution in a civil case regarding some land in the area.