Romania’s opposition party USR says investigation into COVID vaccine procurement is “politically convenient”

Head of the opposition reformist party USR, Catalin Drula, implied that the prosecutors’ investigation into the COVID vaccine procurement that involves two former ministers of his party as well as former Liberal prime minister Florin Citu (PNL) is “politically convenient” and aimed at discouraging the formation of a centre-right political coalition ahead of next year’s European and general elections.

He claimed that USR health ministers Vlad Voiculescu and Ioana Mihaila were not involved in the process conducted by president Klaus Iohannis and PM Citu, but also defended the decision as justified under the circumstances prevailing at that time, Stiripesurse.ro reported.

He pointed to the European Union’s decision to order 4.6 billion vaccines and reminded the panic prompted by the repeated COVID-19 infection waves.

Anticorruption prosecutors asked the Senate and the Presidential Administration to lift the immunity and allow the investigation of former PM Citu and former health ministers Vlad Voiculescu (USR) and Ioana Mihaila (REPER, formerly USR) in relation to the ordering of a second tranche of COVID vaccines (53 million units) during January-May 2021 after a first batch of 23 million was already contracted.

The investigators say that contracting significantly more vaccine doses was carried out without observing the proper procedures and caused damage of over EUR 1 billion to the state budget.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/George Calin)