Oana Sivache became the head of the Bucharest Municipality Hospital Administration in March 2022, when she was appointed deputy manager Cristian Plută. In April 2023, she was made head, and Pluta, deputy. Four months later, on September 19, Pluta was arrested by DNA prosecutors for bribery together with Silviu Stăncilă, a person outside the ASSMB whom the investigators could not link to a job.
Silviu Stăncilă (center, with glasses) and Cristian Plută (right), leaving the Bucharest Court of Appeal, on September 19, 2023. Photo: Dumitru Angelescu / Libertatea
The whistleblower was Oana Sivache, who later assumed the role of collaborator she had in the entire anti-corruption action. The head of the ASSMB agreed to talk about this case and its status in an interview given to the Libertatea audience.
– Madam Principal, are you a USR member?
– I am not a member of any party. I did not do politics. I am and want to remain a technocrat.
– Speaking of technocrats, specialists. You have no experience in medical management, what do you recommend to run the authority responsible for 19 hospitals?
– My role is not to make diagnoses, nor to treat, but to make sure that all financial resources are used efficiently so that doctors have all the necessary conditions to support patients, and patients have decent conditions in hospitals. Yes, it is a great responsibility and a great honor. I hope that so far I have managed to be worthy of the trust that has been placed in me. I hope to be able to do more, both in support of the citizens who arrive at the ASSMB hospitals, and to support the efforts of the medical staff.
He says he only attended a meeting of Gabi Oprea’s party
– You were accused of political partisanship… you were in TSD, in Dâmbovița, then you would have moved to UNPR.
– 15 years ago… I did what many young people who flirted with politics did. But then I gave up. I also participated in a UNPR meeting also in Dâmbovița, but without any intention of becoming a political regiment. I am not running for anything.
– Did you have any relationship with ASSMB before you were appointed to lead the institution?
– I am an economist with 14 years of work experience. I joined ASSMB in 2017, as a specialist inspector. I gradually advanced, for a while I was an adviser on hospital issues at the office of the deputy mayor Horia Tomescu, I was appointed deputy of the ASSMB in 2022 and only this year I became a manager.
“I have never been investigated in any criminal case”
– How do you respond to the observation that the “Mafia from ASSMB hospitals” file qualifies you to work at DNA, not at ASSMB?
– I did not do the work of a prosecutor. I only did what I had to do, legally and morally speaking, as a citizen and as a director of ASSMB. I acted neither as a prosecutor nor as an investigator, but as a citizen. As a mother of two, who lives in this country and wants to stay here. I did what I had to do, nothing extraordinary, I just followed the law. I acted with all the fears of a simple man, but especially with the revolt of a man who finds out where the money that should help us all, in hospitals, sometimes ends up. I never intended for a moment to pose as a light knight or fantasy woman. I am a normal man who wants to live in a normal country.
– How did the DNA story begin? There are not many cases of heads of public institutions volunteering to expose corrupt colleagues!
– I also heard all the speculations made after the DNA action. It was even mentioned in Libertatea that you represent the version that I would have had older problems related to public money and that I would have made some kind of agreement with the prosecutors to escape. Totally fake. I have never been investigated in any criminal case, there is no reason for me to make any deal with the investigators.
“mom please do something”
– What made you go to DNA?
– Since I arrived in the ASSMB, I have noticed that everyone knows that some people get spanked. That it always exists. And I came to notice, to know. While I was deputy director for a year, I realized that no decision is made without consulting a gentleman from outside the institution, Silviu Stăncilă. “Mr. Silviu” had come to control ASSMB! It was something absurd!
I first went to DNA at the beginning of 2023. In January. Then in February. But I realized that I couldn’t pick something up just by words or intuition. Beyond the slogan “everybody knows“the prosecutors told me that evidence is also needed.
Only when I was approached to be offered a rope, when I knew for sure that something was going to happen, I went to the DNA again and reported it. That’s what I felt I had to do. As should any citizen who learns of a violation of the law.
Yes, of course I was scared. I’m still scared. For me, for my family. I have a 10 year old daughter and a third year medical student. But it was the family that gave me the courage to go forward. When I told my older daughter that I had been offered the rope, all she said was, “Mom, please do something so that I don’t want to leave the country anymore. To want to stay and work here, at home”.
Tips from the bribery network
– What advice did Cork give you?!
– Before I received the first package of money, I asked Pluta how to spend it so that I wouldn’t go broke. He gave me three pieces of advice: not to deposit them in the bank because I will have to declare their origin. If I want to make a purchase, not to make it in my name. And to pay with them when I go to the mall or supermarket instead of using the salary card.
– Were many of the purchases in the ASSMB contingent on bribes?
– Probably yes. I don’t want to exaggerate… but that’s how hard-moving investments are explained, where salvation works are done. Since being appointed director, I have canceled two fire safety purchases. Firefighting equipment, doors, stairs… They were intended for three hospitals: Saint Mary, Saint Luke and Saint Stephen. I know I’m going to upset a lot of people.
– Anything else you want to add?
– Yes. I also want to convey to the companies that they do not have to offer bribes to anyone. If they have money and don’t know what to do with it, then I suggest they donate it to hospitals or buy equipment they know patients need and give it to hospitals. If anyone asks them for money to win any ASSMB tender, I ask them to notify the competent institutions.
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2023-09-27 04:15:00
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