Two companies ruled by characters who have been under the magnifying glass of DNA for years are preparing to seize the contract for the award of DDD services (disinsection, disinfection, rodent control), with a value between 36 million lei and 72 million lei, put at stake by the County Service of Disinsection and Environmental Ecology, subordinated to the Ilfov County Council. These are Wasval SRL and Atopum Invest SRL, companies that have countless connections with high-ranking people from SRI and politicians arguing with the law.
Although the auction has just begun, it is quite clear who will be able to sign the Baban contract with the County Service of Disinsection and Environmental Greening, subordinated to the Ilfov County Council. The only offer declared admissible in was the one submitted by the association of companies Wasval SRL (leader) – Atopum Invest SRL. The association is at least bizarre because behind these companies are people with a past driven by corruption and closely related to the dubious businesses carried out during the period when Sorin Oprescu was the mayor of the Capital.
Wasval SRL hit Bucharest
Oprescu came behind bars after laying the foundations of a system through which economic operators who wanted to receive certain contracts from public institutions subordinated to the mayor had to submit a part from the gross profit made.
Among these operators who set out to get rich overnight at any cost are Wasval SRL, a company from Iași, owned by Valentina Tudurachi, the wife of a former colonel SRI and, at the same time, sister-in-law of the former Minister of Energy – Constantin Niță.
According to our sources, the company would be unofficially controlled by Valentina Tudurachi’s son, Claudiu Valentin Tudurachi who would actually carry out disinsection, disinfection and rodent control works.
Wasval SRL concluded the first contract with an institution subordinated to the City Hall of Bucharest in the summer of 2012, when he assumed that he would perform disinfection and disinsection services at the Cultural Center „Brâncoveanu Palaces from the Gates of Bucharest.”, For the amount of 976,200 lei.
A few months later, Wasval SRL seized another important contract that has as object “provides external disinsection services on the area of Ilfov County”, concluded with the County Service of Disinsection and Ecology Environment, under the subordination of the Ilfov County Council. worth 344,300 lei. In November 2013, the same institution offers Wasval a contract worth 5,946,000 lei, and in the summer of 2014, the company concludes a contract worth 4,251,733 lei with the Administration of Human Cemeteries and Crematoriums in Bucharest for the performance of treatments against ticks.
Doubtful public money business revealed by the Court of Auditors
Most likely, the company strictly respects the system created by Oprescu, because the inspectors of the Court of Accounts discovered that the company made the disinsection from the cemeteries in Bucharest only on paper, sometimes even twice a day. The institutions that put the contracts on the table on Wasval SRL were led by Bogdan Cornel Popa, the denominator of Sorin Oprescu, which divided four contracts with a total value of 160,000 lei in order to award them directly to Wasval SRL, so that it is not necessary to organize a tender. The inspectors from the Court of Accounts found that, based on the financial agreements, Wasval SRL used substances even twice a day.
„By concluding the contract for fighting ticks, an attempt was made only to create a legal framework for conducting transactions, for which there are indications that they are in fact unrealistic, is shown in the report of the Court of Auditors.
The inspectors from the Court of Accounts even detected the double payment of some services in the amount of 164,605 lei, to which are added penalties of 65,743 lei.
Among the numerous irregularities detected are the unjustified exceeding by 750,850 lei of the maximum estimated value of the framework service agreement concluded in 2014 with Wasval SRL by concluding five other subsequent contracts during the first eight months of the four-year period; committing to unjustified payment of the amount of 2,045,701 lei by accepting at settlement some disinfection services not approved by Wasval, related to which interest and late payment penalties of 428,539 lei were calculated; unjustified payment in the amount of 744,806 lei of some tick control services provided by Wasval, at which penalties of 217,558 lei were also calculated.
With one foot in the pit, but still in the hearts of public institutions
Wasval SRL demanded insolvency in 2015, at the same time, both Valentina Tudurachi and her son, Claudiu had problems with the law, being targeted by a control from ANAF, which established payment differences to the state budget of three million lei. Wasval SRL escaped the clean scarf, after the Anticorruption prosecutors entered the Bucharest City Hall – the Culture Center „Brâncoveanu Palaces from the Gates of Bucharest”, not appearing in Oprescu’s file, even if he benefited from the amounts transferred by PMB through a strange contract. The company was not obliged to return the money obtained through acts of corruption and was even allowed to Valentina Tudura, registered at the credential table, to withdraw the fabulous amount of 800,000 euros from society.
Although the insolvency proceedings were completed only in 2017, Wasval SRL did not greatly diminish its profit because the public institutions with which it had collaborated in the past found a way to award at the limit of the law, by which they dropped out of open tenders and organized simplified procedures, negotiations without prior publication and direct procurement. These institutions include the „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection Iași and the County Service for Disinsection and Ecology Environment Ilfov.
In 2016, DNA prosecutors ordered the application of the precautionary measure of the seizure on movable and immovable property belonging to Wasval SRL. On October 21, 2022, the magistrates from the Bucharest Tribunal ordered the lifting of the precautionary measure.
„Bursuing to art. 2502 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, orders the lifting of the precautionary measure of the seizure ordered by the prosecutor by ordinance no. 236 / P / 2016 of 13.11.2018, of the National Anticorruption Directorate – Section for combating crimes assimilated to corruption crimes, on movable and immovable property belonging to the civilly responsible party SC WASVAL SRL. Based on art. 275 para. (3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, advanced judicial expenses of the state will remain in its charge. With the right of appeal within 48 hours from the communication of the conclusion. Pronounced in the public meeting of 21.10.2022, by making the solution available to the public through the registry. „, Shows the solution in short of the court.
Until this moment, Wasval SRL has won no less than 21 public tenders, signing contracts with a total value of 101,925,201 lei (21,015,505 euros). For the fiscal year 2021, Wasval SRL registered a turnover of 6.9 million lei, having only 8 employees.
Atopum Invest comes from another public money trick
Atopum Invest SRL is controlled by Gogonea Raluca and Falan Gabriela and also seems to have close ties with political people who have come to be convicted of acts of corruption. According to our sources, Raluca Gogonea is a relative of Teodor Gogonea and Cristina Giorgiana Gogonea, owner of Green Line Construct SRL. Moreover, Gabriela Falan (former Modoran) was associated with Teodor Gogonea in the company E-Acisții Construct Proi SRL (former E-Acquisitions Consultanță Online SRL). The connections between Wasval SRL, Atopum Invest SRL and the contracts given under the hand by the institutions subordinated to the Bucharest City Hall, during the period when Sorin Oprescu was the general mayor, are more than obvious. „Coincidence” means that even in this case there are countless connections with Sorin Oprescu. In the period 2013-2015, the Brâncovenești Palaces Cultural Center and the Cemetery Administration concluded contracts with the company Green Line Construct SRL. The first contract, with a value of 2.7 million lei, it was concluded on April 10, 2013 and provided for road maintenance and repair works within the Brâncoveanu Palaces Cultural Center at the Gates of Bucharest.
In January 2014, a new, much more baban contract was concluded with the same public institution, which had as object „Execution of construction repair and maintenance works under administration – Brâncoveanu Palaces Cultural Center from the Gates of Bucharest”, its value being 11.8 million lei.
Teodor Gogonea was one of the denouncing witnesses „necessary” in the case of the former mayor of the Capital, in order to escape his own skin. Teodor Gogonea was a civil servant within the National Authority for the Regulation and Monitoring of Public Procurement (ANRMAP). He arrived in front of the magistrates as a whistleblower in Sorin Oprescu’s case, giving details about the criminal scheme and the route of the bribe. At that time, Gogonea was warned by the judges that his place should have been on the other side of the barricade.
„You should not have witnessed this case, but a defendant! (…) My belief is that you are in bad faith and I will notify you for a false testimony! ”, Said the judge of Teodor Gogonea.
Teodor Gogonea stated that he also had a rather important role in the scheme by which companies preferred by public institutions had all the open loopholes to public contracts if they paid a small „commission to the town hall ”.
He also stated that during 2012 he owned two companies, respectively Acquisitions Consultancy Online SRL and Greenline Construct SRL, administrator in law being his wife, but in fact he was the one who took care of their administration.
„Through the first company, we conducted a feasibility study where the director was Popa Cornel. At the end of 2012, in connection with the execution, I had discussions with Popa, I asked him if there was a company to execute the work and he proposed to me to take care of my company, Greenline. In this context, Popa’s proposal also concerned certain percentages such as: 2 / 3 profit for Popa, 1 / 3 for the undersigned and, in addition, he told me to remit with the title of bribe / purchase influence 10 percent to Oprescu Sorin and 5 percent to Constantinescu Mircea – percentages calculated from the value of the contract, „he told the judges.
Starting with 2019, both Atopum Invest and Green Line Construct SRL registered colossal turnover.
Atopum Invest won 9 public auctions with a total value of 96,462,195 lei only between September 2018 and August 2022.
Oprescu’s denouncers remained on the wave
Interestingly, the companies that collected exorbitant amounts from the Capital City Hall during the period when Sorin Oprescu held the position of mayor, came to increase their profit in a spectacular way.
The fact that the two companies will seize the contract with a value between 36 million lei and 72 million lei put at stake by the County Service of Disinsection and Environmental Ecology, under the subordination of the Ilfov County Council, it will open their doors wide to other contracts with many zeros, because the exorbitant amount will be a major advantage in awarding other auctions.
The goal excuses the means!
Wasval SRL deals with general cleaning activities of buildings, and the object of activity of Atopum Invest SRL refers to construction works of residential and non-residential buildings. The two companies did not join because they realized that together they would make a good team and perform the works to be entrusted as per the book, but because Wasval SRL needed air from another company to hold its back and raise its turnover in order to meet the criteria imposed by the contracting authority. Specifically, according to the conditions of participation, economic operators have the obligation to present the average of the global turnover for the last 3 financial years concluded, respectively 2019, 2020 and 2021 of at least 24 million lei. Wasval SRL has not yet reached this performance, the average turnover for the mentioned years being 8.8 million lei, but Atopum Invest SRL has done extremely well in the last 3 years, registering an average turnover of 18.2 million lei.
According to the specifications, economic operators registered for auction are obliged to have at least 15 employees certified in DDD services (deratization, disinsection and disinfection), 30 machines for the 15 employees, including a machine with a capacity to „spray at least 50 meters vertically for areas with very high vegetation, even if there are no areas in Ilfov County with a vegetation of such height. Also, the contracting authority makes available to the 15 employees only four days to disinsect and larvice the entire county, a procedure that must be repeated four times a year.
Another anomaly discovered in this case is the fact that the roads in Ilfov County were lengthened from the belly. According to defact.ro, Vidra commune, one of the 40 Ilfoven localities, has (according to the specifications) a network of roads totaling 1,729 hectares. Which means that the length of the roads in Vidra should be 1,729 kilometers (if we take into account a width of ten meters of each road). About the distance between Bucharest and Berlin.
