Ex union leader Petcu on trial

National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) prosecutors yesterday brought Marius Petcu, a former leader of CNSLR-Fratia and the Sanitas Federation, to trial. Petcu was sent to court for repeated acts of bribery. The case was submitted to the Bucharest Tribunal. Prosecutors established that, during Sept. 2009 – March 2011, in his capacity as president of the Sanitas Federation, Marius Petcu received from a trading enterprise administrator sums of money amounting to RON 1,398,4000 in exchange for the company being assigned a contract. The money was received repeatedly, in monthly instalments of RON 87,400, each of which accounted for nearly 20 per cent of the value of each of the works reimbursed, as stated in the works report of a contract on construction at Snagov of a training centre for union members. Also, last February, Petcu received, through a middleman, from the same denouncer, a building at Predeal, valued at nearly RON 535,165, as an offset payment for a yet-unpaid bribe tranche, and also the equivalent of payments corresponding to the next months, or as an incentive to motivate him to make sure the company will get more works in the future. In late March, Petcu was preventively arrested for 29 days, having been caught while taking a EUR 40,000 bribe.