A Court of Auditors report concludes that Romanian economy minister Alexandru Petrescu illegally received a performance bonus while he was the director of the Romanian Post.

According to the report, Petrescu got a total bonus of EUR 53,000 during the time when he was director of the state postal operator, reports local Hotnews.ro.

The Court of Auditors claims that this was illegal because the Post hadn’t set any performance criteria for granting the bonus. The Romanian Post answered that the bonus was given because Petrescu managed to bring the company to profit after he took the lead, after five years of losses.

The Economy Ministry issued a point of view on the Court of Auditors’ report saying that the allegations in the report were unfounded. According to the Ministry, Alexandru Petrescu had performance indicators included in his mandate agreement while he was general manager of the post and the bonuses were granted based on those indicators.

In October 2016, the Communications Ministry announced that it had submitted at the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) a report of its Control Body on irregularities found at the Romanian Post related to public procurement.

editor@romania-insider.com