Here
is a list of some Romanian public officials whom Mayor Viorel Lis gave free
housing from the public housing fund:
Dorin Marian – Presidential Counsel;
Gheorghe Huiu – Presidential Counsel;
Iustin Nastase – Presidential Counsel;
Radu Stroe – General Secretary of the Government;
Alexandru Herlea – Minister;
Sorin Pantis - Minister;
Simona Marinescu – State Secretary at the Ministry for Labor;
Elena Zamfirescu – State Secretary at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs;
Liviu Popescu – State Secretary at the Ministry for the Interior;
Mircea Criste – Attorney General of Romania;
Radu Sirbu – Chief of State Property Fund;
Lucian Mihai – President of the Constitutional Court;
Dumitru Cioflina – Former Chief of Staff in the Romanian Armed Forces;
Gabriel Tepelea – Senator from the PNTCD Party;
Alexandru Sassu – Vice-President and Representative of the PD Party;
Catalin Chirita – PNTCD Mayor for the 5th District of Bucharest;
Ioan Dinuta - PNTCD Mayor for the 6th District of Bucharest;
Marian Lutu – The Mayor of the 4th District of Bucharest who was
arrested:
And
the list contains many more.
We
believed for a long time that the Mayor of Bucharest was not able to provide
public housing for that part of the Bucharest population that needed it.
The
list of people requesting public housing became longer and longer. People without any housing would wait for
days on the hallways of the Bucharest City Hall for an offer, but Mayor Lis
would invariably tell them that there was no public housing available. We got used to it. If there is no public housing available then there isn’t. Recently, Mayor Lis found a solution for
this problem. He decided to buy about
200 apartments with public money and then place in them the poorest of those
11,000 people who were requesting public housing. We applauded his gesture
without ever suspecting that Mayor Lis had public housing available all along,
but he chose to place his friends in it, based on political and personal
criteria and interests.
According
to a report made by the Public Housing Commission (Serviciul Spatiului Locativ)
and at the request of some members of the Bucharest City Council 2,154
apartments from the public housing fund were made available to applicants
during the time Mayor Lis was in office. Among these, 1,499 residences were
made available under personal and direct signature of the First Mayor. Among these, 633 of the best residences were
made available for some public officials, politicians, and media
representatives who were on very good terms with the Mayor of Bucharest, Viorel
Lis.
It
is possible that some of the cases mentioned above were legitimate and some of
these people received housing legally. But the fact that these people were on
the Mayor’s housing list determined us to look for some answers. Legally a person who already has a
residence within Romania or a person who sold a residence after 1990 cannot
receive housing from the public housing fund. Can one believe that the Presidential Counsel Dorin Marian
did not have any housing, so that Mayor Lis was forced to give him two in a
year, one house and one garage?
Can
one believe that Presidential Counsel from Cotroceni Gheorghe Huiu did
not have any housing either, so that the mayor was forced to give him another
two apartments? Other officials must
have been also without any housing, so that they benefited legally from public
housing provided by the City of Bucharest.
For example Radu Stroe, General Secretary of the Government
(PNL), Alexandru Herlea, the Minister for European Integration (PNTCD), Lucian
Mihai, the President of the Constitutional Court, Sorin Pantis, the
former Minister of Telecommunications (PD), Mircea Criste, the Attorney
General of Romania, Iustin Tanase, the former Counsel of the President
(PNTCD), Andrei Svoronos, the Governor of the Danube Delta, Simona
Marinescu, the Secretary of State in the Ministry for Labor, Elena
Zamfirescu, the Secretary of State from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Alexandru
Sassu, the Vicepresident and Representative of the PD party, the
Representatives of the Governmental Coalition Francisc Vaida, Constantin
Aferaritei, Liviu Negoita, Laurentiu Dumitrascu, Cosmin Bucur.
Florentina Athanasiu, the wife of the former Minister of Labor, obtained an
apartment after she had been evacuated from a residence that had been recently
returned to the rightful owners. The
daughter and the niece of the Minister for Public Works, Nicolae Noica,
obtained each one residence from the public housing fund because they were
evacuated from their previous residences that were returned to the rightful
owner but also because they were employees of the government. The Secretary of State from the Minister of
the Interior Liviu Popescu could not fight corruption from a studio
apartment, so he received a two-bedroom apartment. And the former Chief of the Bucharest Police, Colonel Radu
Balici, received two apartments on Calea Victoriei because he was relocated
with his job to Bucharest.
Viorel
Lis was also very generous with his counterparts from the Bucharest
Districts. He personally gave housing
to Catalin Chirita (PNTCD), the Mayor of the 5th Bucharest
District, to Ioan Dinuta (PNTCD), the Mayor of the 6th
Bucharest District, and even to Marin Lutu, the arrested Mayor of the 4th
Bucharest District. Probably these
“poor” mayors and officials had no housing because the generosity of Lis has
only one legal explanation. Finally, Lis did something for his own family too,
not only for public officials. He gave
a house to his fiancée Oana Ungureanu.
But only after he also gave housing to his secretary. Saturday night, the Mayor of Bucharest
declared on a TV channel, “that he gave
housing especially to the working poor, orphans, and to handicapped persons”.
In the report made by the Public Housing Commission (Serviciul Spatiului
Locativ) there are not more than 10 residences made available to orphans and
handicapped persons during the four years Mayor Lis was in office. But, high-ranking officials had priority
receiving public housing during these four years. Lis even gave housing to the Mayor Marin Lutu who was
later arrested on criminal charges.
Both,
the Housing Law and the Decision No. 188 of the General Concil of the City of
Bucharest establish the criteria by which a person can receive public
housing in the City of Bucharest.
Housing is made available by a commission led by the Mayor of Bucharest
who analyses who has priority to receive public housing in Bucharest. First of all, the petitioner is not
allowed to have sold a property after 1990 or to be the owner of another
property at the time he/she requests public housing. Families with numerous children,
families with low income, families that have been evacuated from
properties that were returned to the rightful owners have priority in receiving
public housing. During the Saturday
night interview, Mayor Viorel Lis said: “An inspector makes a social
investigation of the petitioner, which he then presents to the housing
commission and then to me to be signed.
Depending on the results of this social investigation, we decide who has
priority to receive public housing in Bucharest.”
If
this is true, it means that in 1996 the inspector made a social investigation
of the home of the former PNTCD Mayor of the 4th District of
Bucharest Marin Lutu. The
inspector then convinced Lis to give high quality public housing to Lutu. Lis gave Lutu a three-bedroom apartment on
Decebal Boulevard. After three years,
when Lutu was arrested, the police discovered that Lutu had a luxury mansion
and several other apartments besides the apartment received from the public
housing fund. In the same year 1996,
the Press Secretary of the current government, Ms. Gabriela Vrinceanu-Firea,
who at that time was a promising journalist at the state-owned television
station TVR, received housing from Mayor Lis.
Her housing was not in a central location because she wasn’t a public
official yet, but it was still housing from the public housing fund mainly
meant to serve the poor and the disadvantaged population.
According
to the report made by the Bucharest Public Housing Commission (Serviciul
Spatiului Locativ), 72 of the 138 apartments (that were made available by Mayor
Lis in 1996) were granted to governmental institution, to Members of the
Parliament, to employees of the Bucharest City Hall, and to privileged
journalists. All apartments were made
available to the applicants’ institutions, instead of to the applicants
directly.
Some
presidential counsels were granted two apartments, instead of one. Of course, after the new dignitaries came to
their posts, they had to have adequate housing. Since Decision No.188 of the General Council of the City of
Bucharest stipulated that housing for employees of public institutions and
ministries comes last on the list of housing priorities, Mayor Lis found it
necessary to reverse the order of priorities.
Thus in January 1997, Mayor Lis made available a three-bedroom apartment
on Nicolae Titulescu Boulevard for the presidential institution. The presidential office out of Cotroceni
sent the presidential counsel Dorin Marian to live there. This transaction would have been legal if
Dorin Marian had no residence in Bucharest.
At the end of the year 1997 Mayor Lis gave Dorin Marian a garage on the
May 1st Boulevard. The
presidential counsel Gheorghe Huiu seemed to be unhappy with the first
residence he received from Mayor Lis. In March 1997 he was sent to live in the luxury mansions district,
on Schitu Magureanu, by the Cismigiu Park, in a two-bedroom apartment. But he moved two months later in a three-bedroom
apartment in a very central location on Unirii Boulevard, building K4.
The
Presidential Institution of Romania received from Mayor Lis 10 valuable
apartments for its employees. The
Romanian Parliament received 16 valuable residences for its employees. Gabriel Tepelea, the Vicepresident of
the PNTCD Party, moved into one of them. The former Prime Minister of the
Republic of Moldova, Mircea Druc, presently party leader in Bucharest,
also received housing from the Mayor of Bucharest. In 1997, 51 Bucharest city employees received housing from Mayor
Lis. Finally, from the 674 apartments
made available by Mayor Viorel Lis, 40 % (260) were given to dignitaries,
government employees, members of parliament, or other public employees.
If
in 1997 not all public employees managed to get housing from Mayor Lis, the
next year almost all public dignitaries were the recipients of public housing
from the public housing fund. The
Liberal Radu Stroe, the general secretary of the government, who had
been evicted by his wife, as the report of the Public Housing Commission
(Serviciul Spatiului Locativ) shows, received an apartment in a central
location in Bucharest. The Minister for
the European Integration (PNTCD), Alexandru Herlea, who used to share an
apartment with his mother, received a two-bedroom apartment in a central
Bucharest location, on Unirii Boulevard.
The President of the Constitutional Court, Lucian Mihai, gave up
his apartment on Rosetti Street and received a four-bedroom apartment on the
Unirii Boulevard. The Governor of the Danube Delta, Andrei Svoronos,
gave up his studio apartment and received a two-bedroom apartment in a very
central Bucharest location. The rightful owner evicted the former Minister of
Telecommunications, Sorin Pantis, from his residence and so; Mayor Lis
gave the former minister a three-bedroom apartment on Unirii Boulevard. The Attorney General of Romania gave up a
two-bedroom apartment on Mihai Bravu Boulevard and received instead an
apartment on Unirii Boulevard that is located only two minutes from his office.
The
Secretary of State from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elena Zamfirescu,
received a residence in a luxury mansion.
The Vicepresident of the PD Party, Alexandru Sassu, received an
apartment located close to the government building. Constantin Aferaritei, the revolutionary representative,
received according to the Revolutionaries Law, a two-bedroom residence after he
has rented several commercial spaces for his business. The Colonel Radu Balici, Bucharest
Police Chief, was relocated with his job from Sibiu to Bucharest. To be in accordance with the law, he was not
supposed to have a house in Sibiu.
Mayor Lis gave him two apartments on Calea Victoriei 100 (20A-20B),
because the mayor thought that it was a good idea to be friends with the
police.
The
wife of the former Minister of Labor, Florentina Athanasiu, also
received a centrally located apartment.
The former minister of labor declared that it was very hard for him and
his family to get housing. “We were
evacuated from a residence in Cotroceni that had been nationalized. We received this apartment after great
efforts but it is in an earthquake prone location. In a few days, we will leave this residence, because it is
scheduled for renovation. Receiving
this residence was not influenced by my position.”
In
the year 1988 the employees of the presidential office received only four
residences. During 1988, second-degree
government employees were scheduled to receive housing. The former secretary of the CSAT (Supreme
Council for Defense) Calin Costel, received an apartment in a new
building on 13 September Street. Mihaela Macau, from the presidential
office, used to live together with her parents. She also received housing close to the Presidential residence in
Cotroceni. Iustin Tanase,
former presidential counsel, presently assistant general secretary of the PNTCD
party was luckier. He moved from his
parents’ house into a centrally located two-bedroom apartment. Former President Constantinescu’s assistant,
Cristian Fainis, moved out of his parents’ house to an apartment on
Calea Calarasi. Seven employees of the
parliament and 13 employees of the government also received new housing. Two government employees are members of the
family of the Minister for Public Works, Nicolae Noica. Laura Noica, the minister’s niece,
obtained a centrally located studio apartment.
Ruxandra Noica, the minister’s daughter, received from Mayor Lis
a four-bedroom apartment on Spatarului Street.
Minister Nicolae Noica has an explanation for this: "The apartment
on Spatarului Street belonged to our family and it was returned to us according
to the law. This was done through the
city administration.”
The
PNTCD leader from Ilfov, Bogdan Cantaragiu, who is one of the Secretary
of State Alexandru Popescu’s assistants, received a three-bedroom
apartment. Summarizing, in 1988, from
535 available apartments, 200 were given by Mayor Lis to public officials,
according to the report made by the Public Housing Commission (Serviciul
Spatiului Locativ).
1999
was a weak year regarding public housing that was made available by the Mayor
of Bucharest. Viorel Lis could only
give 159 apartments, which is well below the number he made available in
previous years. From these 159
apartments, 100 to 110 were given to public officials. Being at the end of his term, Mayor Lis
could not allow the secretary of Remus Opris, Cristina Pruteanu,
to go without public housing provided by the City of Bucharest. Thus, he gave her an apartment. And Mayor Lis could not allow that his own
fiancée, Oana Ungureanu, be left without public housing provided from
the public housing fund. He gave her a
studio apartment in the center of Bucharest.
Two friends of Mayor Lis’ fiancée also received residences from the
Mayor. These are Cristina Ursu
from the City Hall protocol office and Ramona Stanciu from the City Hall
office of the press. Minister Vlad Rosca’s cabinet chief also received
housing from Mayor Lis. The Chief of
the FPS also received housing in Bucharest.
In
the last year of his mandate, Mayor Lis could not forget one of the most
influential PNTCD party officials, Radu Sirbu, FPS. . Since Radu Sirbu
relocated from Cluj, where he was not supposed to have had any housing if he
were to legally receive housing in Bucharest, Mayor Lis gave him housing on
Queen Elisabeta Boulevard, a central Bucharest location. The Chief of the FPS, Bucharest branch, George
Scarlat, also received a two-bedroom apartment on Marasesti Boulevard. The Secretary of State from the Department
of Religions, Gheorghe Angelescu, needed housing. He received one from Mayor Lis. The representatives of the government
coalition, Liviu Negoita and Laurentiu Dumitrascu, also received
public housing. The Secretary of State
from the Minister of the Interior, Liviu Popescu, used to live in a
studio apartment. Mayor Lis gave him a
two-bedroom apartment on Calea Calarasi.
Mayor Lis, when he gave public housing to Catalin Chirita, the PNTCD
Mayor of the 5th Bucharest District, did not know that this man
would become his party opponent in the local elections. If he knew he probably wouldn’t have given
him any housing at all.
The
list of apartments given by Mayor Lis to public officials during his four years
in office must reach the hands of the local council members. The council members want to know who are the
lucky beneficiaries of public housing given out by the Mayor during the four
years he told the general public that there was no public housing available for
anybody. It seems that public
housing was available only for privileged public officials with strong ties to
the Mayor. Among these are also
journalists from the newspapers “Evenimentul Zilei”, “Adevarul”,
“Libertatea”, “Academia Catavencu”, “Cronica Romana”, “Curierul
National”, “Ziua” as well as from television stations like TVR,
Antena 1, Prima, Pro TV, etc.
O.C.HOGEA,
DAN
BADEA,
ADRIAN
NITA
Dorin Marian - presidential counsel:
"I requested a service residence for my job and I refused three
offers because they were inadequate.
For example, I refused Mr. Basescu’s residence because it was too
small. I received a residence on the 3rd
floor in a 10 floor building on Titulescu Street. I don’t have any other residence. I lost the apartment in Timisoara after the divorce, by a final
and irrevocable court decision. Later I
requested to buy the apartment in Bucharest and I obtained a mortgage from CEC
at 78 % interest which I will pay back in 20 years.”
Alexandru Herlea - a former minister:
"I used to share mother’s apartment where I had a transit room for
two years. Then I received this
two-bedroom apartment. I don’t own any
other property in Romania, but my mother donated her apartment to me. She kept a right to this apartment though,
that allows her to use it as long as she is alive. My mother is pretty sick and she has a caregiver who lives with
her.”
Ioan Dinuta – Mayor of the 6th Bucharest District: "I was given this residence according
to the law. I used to live in my
parents’ house. I have two children and
I haven’t moved into the new apartment because I don’t have the money to
furnish it. I never had another
residence private property. This can be
verified.”
Radu Stroe – General Secretary of the Government:
"It is true that I received an apartment. I didn’t have one before and I don’t have another one in the
present.” Mayor Lis’ justification:
"It is true that residences were given to public dignitaries, among
which were also ministers, but it is normal that when a person comes to
Bucharest as a minister, he or she should receive public housing if he or she
doesn’t have one already. The two Bucharest
District Mayors (Catalin Chirita and Ioan Dinuta) received housing because they
had the right to receive public housing.
Ioan Dinuta did not have a residence private property in Bucharest. Catalin Chirita exchanged the three-bedroom
apartment that he had before, for an apartment that we gave him. Moreover, I was asked on numerous occasions
by representatives of the parliament, the government, and the presidency to
help some employees of these offices who did not have housing with receiving
public housing. Everything that I gave,
even if I gave it to public officials, can be verified. Every single one of these applicants made
correct and legal applications and I took over these cases in order to solve
them.”
Other persons with good connections to the Mayor and who received public housing:
Liviu Hagea – Secretary of State in the Industry Ministry;
Liviu Viclea – from the State Property Fund;
Ion Marita – Prosecutor in the Attorney General’s Office
Mihai Boruzescu – from the Health Inspection Agency;
Ioan Dinuta – Mayor of the 6th Bucharest District;
Horatiu Tica – member of the PNTCD Youth, publicity director at the
Bucharest City Hall;
Dan Popa – former general prosecutor at the Bucharest Appeals Court;
Dinu Mihai – former first prosecutor at the Bucharest Tribunal;
Col. Virgil Vochina – chief of public relations at the Minister for the
Interior;
Col. Tudorel Dragomirescu – assistant director of the economic branch of the
police;
Daniel Ghioca – director of the judicial branch of the Bucharest City
Hall;
Geani Dabu – former chief of the administration of the City of Bucharest streets;
Stefan Farcas – counsel of the Mayor of Bucharest;
Gabriela Rindasu – chief in the Public Housing Commission;
Gheorghe Paun – chief inspector in the department for handicapped
persons;
Aurel Temisan - singer;
Ioana Babiuc – daughter of the former minister of the defense;
Ana Maria Tinu – the daughter of the director of the “Adevarul” newspaper;
The "Auto-Rom" Firm – owned by Ion Tiriac;
Gheorghe Zamfir – pan flute artist;
The “Sfanta Teodora” Foundation Bucharest – two apartments;
Eugen Bujoreanu – former Mayor of the 4th Bucharest District,
presently counsel at the Bucharest City Hall;
The Foundation “Cerbul” Bucharest – two apartments;
Wednesday, April 5th 2000 Daily Commentary
Getting
rid of Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was done in part also for reasons pertaining
to properties that had been nationalized.
The time had come that some privileged people would take legally into
private ownership the properties they had received from the Communist
Party. The fight for the property laws
has also an underlying cause in the problem of the nationalized
properties. The terrible maneuver with
the tenants has the same underlying cause.
PDSR adopted a law according to which almost all tenants were legally
permitted to buy at very low prices the houses they were occupying as
tenants. The tenants could not longer
accept the idea that they were tenants.
They wanted to become homeowners.
This situation blocks the possibility that the nationalized properties
will ever be returned to the rightful owners. How can a property law be adopted that would deprive tenants of
properties over which they became overnight homeowners and for which they paid
derisory amounts? They wouldn’t give up
these properties for anything in the world!
Not for ideology or for any other reasons. They do not want to give up these properties because they
obtained them too easy and now they want to give a legal turn to these property
seizures.
We believed that after 1996 the political power in Romania would become honest and democratic. We believed in a little morality and consideration. But the reality can be seen in the way nationalized properties were given out in Bucharest: a little bit to the poor and a lot to the rich and powerful. Almost nothing was given to members of the PDSR. It is true that between 1990 and 1996 Ion Iliescu’s people got their lion’s share. This is why on Mayor Lis’ list no luxury mansions are available. But by studying the list of residences given out between 1996 and the present we can see that the power was maintained especially in the residential sector. For most of those who won the elections this meant that their housing needs were resolved. Is it moral? Is it correct? Is it legal? Some of the people on the list have various explanations. Since we received this list at our newspaper we were bombarded by phone calls. We were asked not to publish such and such name. On the contrary, we tried not to exclude anybody, even those with obscure and unknown names. Many of these housing “gifts” have Mayor Lis’ signature. But concentrating in criticizing only Mayor Lis is like looking for a scapegoat. Lis has a moral responsibility and he should have known what his people were doing. He could be asked to justify why he signed some of these housing “gifts”. But it seems unfair to accuse Mayor Lis that he gave all these apartments to people with power at his own initiative. It is absurd to suggest that he might have gone to the different public and political institutions asking around who wanted to receive free public housing! The hundreds of apartments given out for free to powerful people are the result of political pressures exerted on the Mayor by all these public and political institutions.
If
Mayor Lis had kept a record of all the phone calls he received regarding
interventions for public housing he would have given us a free ticket to the
political show going on behind the scenes.
We would have had a grotesque portrait of the Romanian political
class. Why do we believe this? Because very few people become embarrassed
when it comes to their own interests.
Most are aggressive, are putting up a show and have no scruples. They don’t have any shame in putting
themselves before others and in believing that having power means first of all
solving their own personal interests.
This is a cynical and very typical Bucharest vision of democracy!
The
list of public housing that was given out for free in Bucharest to those
powerful gives us an image about the behavior of the current Romanian political
class. It would be unfair to regard it
without remembering the same illegalities that were done during the time of the
PDSR government. Unfortunately, the
conclusion is equally sad. The first
ones (PDSR) seized the best properties and the ones who came afterwards were
left to seize the rest. But it was
still a seizure and it causes great anger in the hearts of the regular poor
population. These are left only with
promises and they never receive anything from those who have been elected to
power.
PNTCD = National Peasant
Party, Christian Democrat
PDSR = Party of Romanian
Social Democracy
PD = Democrtc Party
PNL = National Liberal Party
FPS
= State Property Fund
CSAT
= Supreme Council for Defense