The head of the Romanian tax collection agency (ANAF), Gelu Diaconu, and his deputy Mihai Gogancea, are being formally investigated by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) in a case concerning the misuse of EU funds.
The two are suspected of using their positions to help the manager of an EU-funded project aimed at the inclusion of Roma population have some debts to the budget for unpaid social security contributions written off, the DNA said on Feburary 10.
The case also involves Roma party leader Nicolae Paun and MP Madalin Voicu, who are alleged to have received kickbacks for contacting ANAF officials on behalf of the project’s managers.
The project itself was fraudulent because the manager claimed a large number of Roma citizens had been involved, using many people’s identities in order to receive more funding. Eventually, the supposed beneficiaries of the programme received notifications from the tax collection agency ANAF concerning income they were believed to have received from the programme. At this point, the programme managers contacted Paun and Voicu who intervened with the heads of the ANAF.
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