Resignation ‘if conflict of interest is decided by ANI’

Labour Minister Ioan Botiş stated that ‘starting today’ his wife would resign and would no longer be employee of the Euractiv Partnership Bistriţa association.

Ioan Nelu Botiş added that an adviser who worked in the Labour Minister and was involved in the association has resigned.

‘We’re now referring to Mr. Ioan Moroşan’, Ioan Nelu Botiş also said.

Ioan Botiş also noted that the income that his wife earned from her job in the association was up to 8.000 lei per month and the projects from European funds where his wife was involved was released by the Euractiv Partnership Bistriţa association in September, it received funding in late October, while the funding process followed the legal procedure.

‘I had no influence on her. It requires an evaluation and it was made by an independent evaluator from the Regional Intermediate Body Cluj Napoca.

‘I have no direct contribution in evaluating, signing and funding these contracts’, the Labour Minister added.

Labour Minister Ioan Botiş previously stated that if the National Integrity Agency found that there was a conflict of interest as far as he is concerned, ‘he would resign’.

Before the meeting with the Prime Minister Emil Boc, Ioan Botiş failed to mention if he would resign from the party where he is a member, the PDL, or from his Minister position, although he had previously announced that he was considering the idea of resigning from the PDL.

The National Integrity Agency took notice of the case and is investigating the potential conflict of interest in which Labour Minister Ioan Botiş might be involved.

Emil Boc: ‘Botiş is an honest man’

Prime Minister Emil Boc stated that Minister Ioan Botiş will resign if the National Integrity Agency (ANI) decides that there is a conflict of interests in the case of the NGO that received European funds in the labour field.

‘Mr. Botiş is an honest man and I have discussed with him about the situation he is into, which is not new, it dates back to the beginning of this year and we have decided the following: if state authorities, and I now refer to the National Integrity Agency, decides that there is a conflict of interest, he will immediately resign, because, as I said, he is a man of good faith, a minister who has done his job very well. If the accusations are true, this will be the solution’, the Prime Minister also said.

According to Prime Minister Boc, neither Minister Ioan Botiş nor his wife do not benefit from leading positions in the NGO which received the European funds.

‘As per the information provided to me today, neither Minister Ioan Botiş nor his wife, are members of the NGOs, they do not benefit from leading positions in the NGO and have nothing to do with European fund absorption, in the sense that Mr. Botiş had nothing to the with the allocation of the project, but it is the job of state authorities to clear the situation and, if conflict of interest is decided, Mr. Botiş will resign’, Emil Boc explained.

‘Professional retraining at the Labour Minister’s house’

According to a press investigation, an association which has its headquarters in Bistriţa, has received European and budgetary funds during the mandate of the current Labour Minister.

The website timponline.ro informed that the the ‘Euractiv Partnership Bistriţa’ has its headquarters ‘at the same address where Minister Botiş resides’.

Ioan Botiş admitted that his wife is adviser of the ‘Euractiv Partnership Bistriţa’ and was remunerated out of European funds on the project on retraining for the unemployed.

The association is provided over 2 million lei for retraining for the unemployed, of which, about 90 percent represent grant funds from the European Union.

The Labour Minister declared for Realitatea TV that he does not consider himself to be involved in a conflict of interest, as he, personally, did not receive any money from the association.

Translated by: Mihaela Grigoraş
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University