The Police arrested Georgian Gabriel Surdu , the manager of Romania’s State Patrimony Administration RA-APPS, for 24 hours on April 29 for allegedly buying influence. He is currently facing a 30-day arrest request. Anticorruption prosecutors also investigate Marian Cristinel Bigiu, the Buzau County Council president, for influence peddling.

The RA-APPS director met Bigiu in the summer of 2013 and asked for his help in obtaining public work contracts in Buzau county, for a company which he was controlling through an intermediary, according to a statement of the National Anticorruption Department DNA. Bigiu agreed and promised to will help him land  a contract for this firm in a Buzau county town.

For his company to win the auction, Surdu promised Birgiu 8% of the contract value in exchange for his intervention at the town’s Mayor. According to DNA, Birgiu received EUR 75,000 a few days later.

In May 2014, the town’s City Hall and the company controlled by Surdu signed a contract worth almost EUR 11 million.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com