Ponta: Special pensions won’t be recalculated

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Former liberal Defense Minister Corneliu Dobritoiu said yesterday that an audit conducted during his term of office showed the recalculation of military pensions had been made in an unprofessional fashion and contains major flaws, with the state having to pay an extra RON 200,000.

“The recalculation process of military pensions evinced some absolutely anachronistic realities in the system, with the NCOs having pensions larger than generals, which is unheard of. The relevant audit concluded that the process was hasty, unprofessional and contained major flaws hasty.

In a nutshell, the state must now pay an extra RON 200.000-plus million. The audit also showed that some thousands of files have not yet been processed, with processing coming to a close by its deadline,” Corneliu Dobritoiu, a former liberal defense minister, currently a senator, aid yesterday. He added that “there are serious indications that something unpleasant happened there, given the political decision in favor of the process being completed very fast. Asked wh

o the culprits are, the National Liberal Party (PNL) senator had this to say: “It is up to the relevant state institutions to establish who the culprits are.” He pointed out that all those irregularities happened during Gabriel Oprea’s minister of defence term of office. Answering a question, Dobritoiu said he had no knowledge of the prosecutor’s office opening an investigation against Gabriel Oprea. Asked whether he notified the prosecutor’s office over those irregularities,” Dobritoiu answered: “The auditing process concluded with a report containing the aspect I have mentioned before, and the report remained in its final form two weeks after it as issued. The two-week deadline is needed, according to law, to allow the institutions involved in the recalculation process to bring further evidence on pension calculus accuracy, and the report has remained as such since December 27 of last year.”In a Realitatea TV interview Monday evening, Premier Victor Ponta confirmed that the calculation of special pensions included abnormalities. “This is yet another atomic bomb. I have received information that calculations of special pensions – army, police – contained abnormalities, mostly in the army area, some certificates were missing, given the military didn’t have them, some of the employment record books were closed, others, open,” Ponta told Realitatea TV.Ponta also repeated his statements on special pensions at yesterday’s government session, saying that problems were encountered and the culprits will pay. However, he was quite clear that the special pensions won’t be recalculated. “I want to get this pension issue over with and I want everybody to hear it from me: the pensions will not be recalculated.  Calculation-related problems were noted at the time the special pensions law was enforced here were noted problems, mostly in the army area, yet, not only. If The Prosecutor’s Office has some evidence we must know it, to see who the culprit is so that they could be held accountable – I’m talking about those who did the calculations since it is not the ministers who do it, neither the former nor the current one, but those in charge. If the Court of Audits or the Ombudsman comes and says wrong calculations have been the case, we must deal with the problem quite seriously. We’ll see what relevant authorities find about it and then, we’ll take the decisi

on deemed necessary,” Ponta said during the government session. The PM added that, “nonetheless, it’s 160,000 people we are talking here who worked for this country and have fair pensions in this country,” and I wouldn’t like them to worry or panic  .“The mistakes should be straightened out, but I wouldn’t like to see a new, huge issue arising, able to create panic among everybody. I disagree with such approach. While the Parliament, the Senate, the Ombudsman, everybody is entitled to their opinion, I would like to deliver this very, very, very clear. We won’t get the system upside down again; specific mistakes will be dealt with and straightened out, obviously,” Ponta said.Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, Civic Force President, said that the government makes military pensioners a laughingstock, and added that the “mockery is beyond all limits” and “gross government incompetence” is at stake here. He also said that the military are the only employee category of whom the state demands that they give their lives for this country.