Five years ago, following an extensive audit, the Court of Accounts found that the National Institute of Forensic Medicine “Mina Minovici” Bucharest did not take steps to recover huge claims that came from the payment of allowances for medical leave of employees in 2018.
The Institute of Forensic Medicine had to recover the amounts from a few years ago PHOTO archive Adevărul
And, although the Court of Accounts has made multiple addresses and verified this year as well whether the amounts have been recovered, the problem has not been resolved until now, nor have measures been taken against the people responsible for the non-recovery of the amounts, led by Alina Anghel, former director of human resources of INML.
In the fall of 2019, from the verification of the documents made available to the audit team of the Court of Accounts, it was found that “for the year 2018, for the medical leave allowances borne by the National Single Social Health Insurance Fund, in the amount of 301,927 lei, the institute did not submit any requests for restitution to the Health Insurance House of the Municipality of Bucharest, although according to the provisions laws in force there was the obligation to request these amounts monthly”.
As the representatives of the Court of Accounts stated for “Adevărul”, following the audit in the fall of 2019, several measures were ordered, including “the analysis of the causes that determined the non-recovery of some claims in the amount of 301,927 lei and the taking of all the necessary measures in order to recover the entity’s claims and the reintegration of budget credits”.
Between October 11-14, 2024, the Court of Accounts verified whether INML took the measures ordered in 2019, resulting in the fact that “iThe institution undertook requests to carry out these measures, but the requests submitted by INML regarding medical leaves were rejected by the Health Insurance House of the Municipality of Bucharest through the addresses of July and August 2023″.
The requests submitted last year by INML for the recovery of the amounts were anyway extremely late, given that the legislation clearly stipulates that INML had to make requests for the return of the money within a maximum of 90 days, a deadline exceeded by no less than six years.
At the beginning of November 2024, INML asked the Court of Accounts to grant a deadline until November 15, 2024 for the recovery of the amount of 301,927 lei. However, even so far the amount has not been recovered.
“Following the conciliation meeting of the follow-up mission carried out by the Court of Accounts, the INML representatives who had just taken over its leadership requested a deadline until November 15, 2024 to analyze and undertake the necessary steps in order to recover the amount of 301,927 lei . Considering the fact that INML has so far not submitted to the Court of Accounts documents certifying the recovery of the receivables in question, the measure from the Court of Accounts Decision of 2019 is considered unimplemented”Mihail-Cătălin Toderașcu, head of service at the Court of Accounts, told “Adevărul”.
Who was supposed to make the requests for money recovery
According to the job description, but also the internal procedures, including according to the Organization and Functioning Regulation approved by the Ministry of Health, Alina Anghel, who a few years ago has been the head of Human Resources at INML, had the obligation to submit to the Health Insurance House of the Municipality of Bucharest, the declarations and requests for recovery of the amounts related to medical leaves, a fact that also emerges from the internal operational procedure regarding the preparation of salary statements, a document drawn up by the employee herself.
Even Alina Anghel, through the explanatory notes given to the Court of Accounts and the Financial/Accounting Department, acknowledged that she did not submit the restitution requests, the reasons given being: the large amount of work caused by the legislative changes that have occurred, the taking of vacations and medical leave, lack of staff, in the last explanatory note also referring to the state of emergency in which Romania was during the SARS CoV-2 pandemic.
“Adevărul” tried to get in touch with Alina Anghel, but she did not answer the phone.
What the director of INML says
“Adevărul” instead spoke with Cristian Stan, the new director of INML, appointed on October 19, 2024 and who answered very evasively to specific questions regarding the issue of not recovering the amount of over 300,000 lei even after six years.
“The amounts are very old, the Court of Accounts was in control several times, there was a correspondence between the institutions. We created an administrative-disciplinary commission, a commission that continues its activity. I cannot intervene in the work of this commission. I thought things were closed… It’s a bit complicated for me”stated for “Adevărul” Cristian Stan, director of INML.
