- Two anonymous firms have won 40 IT consultancy contracts this year for the digitization of institutions, totaling more than half a million euros.
- The money is taken by direct purchase only, from town halls in Tulcea, Constanța, Vaslui and a hospital in Timiș, through the European programs ITI Danube Delta and PNRR.
- One of the companies is owned by the godmother of Alfred Simonis, leader of the PSD MEPs, and won its first contract just a month after the company was set up. The godmother is also Simonis’ adviser in the parliamentary cabinet, after several years as a housewife.
- Her cousin, with a background in catering and bakery, owns the second company, which also won 21 contracts in a single month. The firm had no employees prior to the purchases.
- In many of the cases the purchases were finalized within minutes of the procedure being launched the SEAP website.
- Many of the consultancy reports were delivered at the same time, just a few days after the contracts were signed, even though the documents should have contained analysis and conclusions following a study of the town hall archives and registers.
- Info Sud-Est has analyzed all the procurements and went through some of the reports delivered at the end of the consultancy: their content is copy paste, although it should have been customized, specific to each municipality.
- Moreover, some documents from both firms are identical and even contain the same drafting mistakes.
- The Tulcea mayors say that they reached the consultants through the county PSD chief who summoned them to a meeting with one of the firms. Horia Teodorescu admits that he called the mayors and introduced them to the firm, „but did not influence them”.
- Alfred Simonis told us that he does not respond to „aberrations”. The firm recommended by Teodorescu asked us for a „copy of the original ID” to talk to us. Simonis’s godmother’s firm told us that „the mere fact that the reports highlight the same issues does not diminish their value”. The others blocked us or refused to comment.
UPDATE 10:21 According to G4Media sources, Alfred Simonis asked his advisor Camelia Huțan to resign on Friday morning following the publication of the Info Sud-Est investigation. Camelia Huțan has resigned from her position as an advisor to the parliamentary office of the leader of the PSD deputies, the sources said.
How it started
SC Maxor Consulting SRL, a company specialized in IT consulting, was founded by Camelia Veronica Huțan in March 2022 and is based in an apartment in Bucharest’s Sector 3.
One month later, the company obtained its first contract with European money involved, signed with the Grindu City Hall in Tulcea, for consultancy services. The contract was worth €25,000. Four days after the first purchase, the company signed another consultancy contract with Măcin Town Hall, worth around €24,000. The following month, Huțan’s company signed another contract with C.A. Rosetti Town Hall, located at the very end of the Delta, for €25,000
From housewife to MEP adviser and digital consulting firm administrator
In the contact details on the procurement platform, Maxor Consulting listed the website forfuture.ro. But this website belongs to another company specialized in accountancy.
Instead, the only website that could be associated with the consulting firm’s name – maxorconsulting.ro – has no contact details or persons and is not functional. The last change on the website was made on April 4, 2022, three weeks after the company was founded. The domain is owned by an individual.
Maxor Consulting is also not identifiable on Facebook or any other social network. The company can only be contacted through the public procurement website e-licitatie.ro, where, in order to access public money, it is mandatory to register contact details.
The sole administrator of Maxor Consulting SRL is Camelia Huțan, a friend of Elena Simonis, the wife of MP Alfred Simonis, leader of the PSD parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies.
According to the asset declarations of Camelia Huțan’s husband, Adrian Darius Huțan (a traffic agent in Timiș), the woman was listed as „housewife” in the income tax declarations for 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017.
In August 2018, Camelia Huțan and her husband became the godparents of Alfred and Elena Simonis and posted photos on Instagram with the tag #godparents.
According to her husband’s 2019 declaration of assets, Camelia Huțan was listed at the time as an advisor in Alfred Simonis’ parliamentary office.
The Chamber of Deputies has refused to tell us who Alfred Simonis’ advisers are, paid by public money, invoking GDPR rules. The PSD deputy leader told us that he would not respond to „aberrations”, that „everything is tendentious” and that he hired Camelia Huțan as an advisor before she became his godmother:
- „I cannot respond to such aberrations! I don’t care what my employees do in private! The salary is about 4000 lei. And the date of employment is before the wedding. Happy? Everything is tendentious,” wrote Alfred Simonis on WhatsApp.
In the absence of other contact details of Camelia Huțan, Info Sud-Est called the phone number of Maxor Consulting on the e-licitatie.ro website.
On the WhatsApp account of the number appears the a photo of traffic agent Darius Huțan, Alfred Simonis’ godfather. The phone was answered by a man who said he would let us know who we could talk to, and then asked us to write to his company’s e-mail and he would reply „when he gets to the office”.
The next day we received Maxor Consulting’s point of view:
- „The contracts under which we provided consultancy services resulted from legal procurement procedures. The procedures were transparent and you had access to them. As regards the content of the reports, we would like to let you know that these realities are valid for most institutions in Romania, the findings constituting a good starting point for digitizing the work in public administration. The mere fact that the reports highlight the same aspects does not diminish their value”.
The godmother’s cousin has a background in catering and bakery, but does ‘IT expertise’ business for EU money
Athos Total Consulting is another IT consulting firm, majority-owned since June 2022 by Dorica Pop. She and Camelia Huțan, Simonis’ godmother, claim on social media that they are cousins. The two appear together in a group photo at Simonis’ wedding in August 2018, as well as in several photos from vacations they spent together. Dorica Pop, Camelia Huțan and Alfred Simonis are all from Timiș.
Athos Total Consulting received in a single month, from November 10 to December 9, 21 contracts totaling €54,000 from the PNRR, signed with the Vaslui County town halls.
In many cases, the procedures were finalized in SEAP in just a few minutes. The PSD president of Vaslui County Council, Dumitru Buzatu, said that he „doesn’t know what’s going on with this company”, but that „if the purchases are correct, what’s the problem?”.
Company ” seasoned ” with public money
The company Athos Total Consulting, which provides „IT technical expertise”, has an unfinished and partially non-functional website. The site, which appears to be unsecure, runs under a seemingly professional interface, but the only information it delivers is an email address, a welcome message, a motto and a slogan.
Since 2020, Athos Total Consulting has obtained several consultancy contracts for European money with various public institutions in the country (Iași, Turnu Măgurele, Târgoviște, Ilfov, etc.), including 14 purchases worth over 340,000 euros in municipalities in the Tulcea and Constanța counties, and a contract worth over 24,000 euros with the Tulcea County Council.
Before taking over Athos, a company that receives European money, Dorica Pop worked for a catering company. In the year she took over the IT expertise firm, Pop worked for a bread and pastry factory, and for a company active in the manufacture of paper and cardboard packaging.
One of Athos’ shareholders and a former director is Adriana Cioară, with no contact details but a Facebook account. Cioară blocked us after we asked for her point of view.
Analytics delivered within days, copy pasted reports
Info Sud-Est analyzed all the procurement procedures in SEAP and requested copies of the contracts with Athos and of the reports on needs analysis and digitization of specific processes from all the municipalities in Tulcea County.
Ten of these municipalities provided the requested documentation.
Four of the analysis reports consulted have copy pasted content, with the names of the localities being the only changes made from one document to another.
The analysis reports contain the same number of findings, recommendations and conclusions, whether it was drawn up for Maliuc Municipality, an isolated community in the Danube Delta with less than 300 inhabitants and 7 employees in the municipality, or for Greci Municipality, a developed community with about 5000 inhabitants and 50 employees.
In four of the cases, the same registration number appears on the analysis reports received by the municipalities, although the contracts are different.
On the other hand, in the case of Măcin City Hall, the activity report prepared by Maxor Consulting is identical to the activity report of Mihail Kogălniceanu City Hall, which was done by Athos Total Consulting. The documents also contain the same drafting errors.
Many of the consultancy reports were delivered at the same time, just a few days after the contracts were signed, even though the documents should have contained analyses and conclusions based on a study of the town hall archives and registers.
According to the terms of reference consulted, the consultancy firm should have drawn up:
- „Expert analysis and documentation on specific processes/needs regarding the digitalization of processes;
- Study of the institution’s organizational chart;
- Studying the institution’s organization and functioning rules and any other documents that highlight how the institution’s work is carried out on a day-to-day basis;
- Degree of knowledge and understanding of existing working procedures;
- Identification and analysis of the institution’s registers and electronic archival nomenclature;
- Identify the degree of accessibility of information from both current work processes and the institution’s historical archive;
- Expert analysis and documentation report on the processes, specific needs regarding the digitization of processes”.
However, the documents consulted by Info Sud-Est show that at least 10 town halls received the same analysis report, word for word and with general information, without specific details and without specific or personalized aspects by consultants for each beneficiary, as required by the specifications.
In practice, only one report was produced and paid for at least ten times.
Within one month of signing the contracts, the firm delivered the analysis reports to eight municipalities.
- In two of the cases, in Sulina (at the end of the Delta) and in Greci (at the other end, in the Măcin Mountains), the consultants claim to have fully documented, analyzed the collected information, written and delivered the analyses in only 6 days (two of which were in the weekend) after the contracts were signed.
A year prior to the 2022 bandwagon purchases, Athos Total Consulting had no employees and a turnover of less than 100,000 lei per year, according to the balance sheet the company submitted to the Ministry of Finance.
Mayors: „Horia Teodorescu summoned us all to the County Council, where the consultants from Athos were also present. And there he recommended them for digitalization”
Several mayors from Tulcea county explained to Info Sud-Est that they found out about Athos Total Consulting after they were summoned by the PSD president of the County Council, Horia Teodorescu.
Teodorescu „presented and recommended” Athos for IT consultancy.
The mayors tell that they were called „in a festive setting” to the County Council, where the company was presented by the county chief as a „serious one, with many contracts and experience in several counties”.
„So, not knowing anyone here, in the area, near us, we said let’s do as Mr. Chairman says,” one of the mayors told us.
„But not all of them did, some refused and we were shocked afterwards because we knew them to be close to Teodorescu”, another mayor told us.
Some mayors explained to us that they refused the „recommendation” because „it seemed the wrong thing to do” and reported that some mayors are now having problems in working with the consultants:
„They move slowly, they don’t send complete papers. Some people were ask to fill in forms themselves that the consultants should have filled in. There are problems, I tell you, they have to be hounded to finish the projects”, one of the mayors who refused to give the IT consultancy to Athos Total Consulting told us.
Horia Teodorescu confirmed for Info Sud-Est that he summoned the mayors to present the company Athos Total Consulting, which he claims he did not know before his representatives came to an audience. However, the Tulcea County Council, which he heads, has also signed an IT consultancy contract with Athos.
Teodorescu insisted that he did not know the links between the shareholders of the two firms and his party colleague Alfred Simonis, and claims that he would have introduced the mayors to any firm that came to him with a proposal to access funds for the mayors.
Horia Teodorescu’s main statements:
- „I didn’t know this company (Athos Total Consulting, editor’s note), they came to present their services and what they do, at the County Council. The specialized council and the CJ’s management was convened and we made a new presentation of what we need to do and what opportunities there are in digitalizing the administration.
- I took the people who are in the field to the table and we discussed. The idea was that we need to discuss that this needs to be done at a town hall level: ‘Well, yeah, guys, present the goods to the mayors, explain to them what it’s all about, in what you are thinking of doing and if you come to the conclusion that it’s ok, then ok’.
- They (the mayors, ed. note) were invited to a meeting where the project was presented to them, as many mayors had no idea what it was about. There they were presented with the opportunity to access and digitize at the UAT level. So, they took the decision, it was up to them, nobody influenced them, nobody said anything to them, except that there are two, three or four months to go before the application closes.
- I can see here (from the questions, ed. note) that they have copy pasted, that’s on them. I have no idea what they have done, I really don’t know, I’m telling you honestly. I don’t know what they did there, if anyone signed. After a while they broke off discussions with the mayors on this because there’s no time to deal with every town hall about such details.
- Whenever a company comes to you and asks you to present it in the county, do you summon the mayors? Over the years, yes. If there is any opportunity and the mayors should be briefed, there are various briefings. And we, the County Council, do it.
- And you introduce them to private firms? If one comes to present a private offer in a certain field, why not?
- Because there is SEAP for that. Mayors can go there to look for bids, there are hundreds of firms. Let’s be clear, they could have sought bids from here too. As proof, many got what they wanted, how they wanted, some didn’t.
- But very many signed with consulting firm recommended by you, Athos, which is, however, from Timiș, on the other side of the country, interconnected with the firm of Mr. Simonis’s godmother. I have no idea where the firm is. I’ve never even discussed what they did with those guys. I’m not just talking or hiding behind a cherry tree, I really have no idea. I don’t.
- How do you, as president of the County Council, assess the way the consultancy services were conducted? I understand and want to and believe that everything you say is true. I really don’t know, you’re asking me about something that doesn’t exist in my courtyard, it’s for the the town halls to deal with. If they did this, they should be held responsible. It’s none of my business that their projects and funding should not be approved (…) Now let’s be fair, I’m not defending anyone. In my opinion, the digitization format itself of a UAT (Territorial Administrative Units) responds to the same components, only the population, certain technical data and the surface area differ, I guess. Technically, if there are 20 people, the same has to be done. If there are 500, the workload increases, but I don’t know. As president, all the projects (must, ed.) be perfect and applied to the respective UATs, to respond to the characteristics of the UATs. But why don’t you ask the mayors?
- The mayors are unhappy. They said they get incomplete documentation. They said they can’t get through to these people, they’re very slow to respond. Contact between us and them has since broken down. It is no longer our business what happens, as the County Council, how well they do their job at the town hall level. No one came to tell me, I don’t even have contacts with those people and you say they are from Timiș. I had no idea that they were from Timiș and that they would have the relationships you mentioned (of friendship with Alfred Simonis, ed.) I give my word of honor that I would have no idea if you hadn’t told me me just now. They came about 3-4 people and they were sitting here, to come to see me to present something in Tulcea County, to present a project (…), I’m not good at explaining, believe me. And I told them: „Well, explain it to all (the mayors, ed. note). For those who want in, it’s good, for those who don’t, that’s just as good”.
Public money vs. journalist’s identification
Athos Total Consulting asked us for a „certified copy of ID” to agree to talk to Info Sud-Est reporters. We sent them a copy of their press ID and proposed an online video interview, thus responding to the company’s request to „know who they are talking to”. They never replied.
E-mail correspondence:
Athos Total Consulting: „Given that we receive many messages from people we do not know and we do not know what their mandate is and on whose behalf, in order to be able to communicate with you further, we kindly request that you send us a copy of your ID card signed to conform to the original”.
ISE Reporter: „Since your company carries out projects funded by public money, the information requested is of public interest. I attached below my press badge and links to my personal Facebook page and to the publications where I work”.
Athos Total Consulting: „Unfortunately we have previous experiences with people who have fraudulently used such IDs which is why if you would like to share a copy of your ID we will make this dialog possible. We consider that it is our legitimate right to know with whom we are dialoguing and this can be proved according to the Romanian laws only with the identity card”.
ISE Reporter: „As proof of our openness to dialogue and full transparency, we propose to conduct a video-call interview with you tomorrow, at a time to be decided by you. This will give you the opportunity to see with whom you are in dialogue and to give us the requested point of view on the European funds contracts you have signed with the town halls of several counties”.
No opinion from the ministries
Asked what he thinks about the „copy paste” IT consultancy provided to municipalities for digitization, Sebastian Burduja, Minister of Research, Innovation and Digitization, referred us to the Ministry of Development:
- „These programs are not managed by the MCID. There are monitoring and evaluation and verification and control bodies for each program, respectively, which have to do their job.”
Cseke Attila, the Minister of Development, who is the managing authority of the financing line under which these projects have been carried out, did not send a point of view by the time the article was published.
The Managing Authority for the Operational Program Administrative Capacity (AM POCA) did not send a point of view by the time the article was published.
An investigation by Andreea Pavel and Adrian Anton/ Editing and graphics by Cristian Andrei Leonte
Read also:
- INVESTIGATION Where the EU’s €1 billion for the Danube Delta went. The people controlling the money
- How the Danube Delta administration failed to clear canals, perhaps fishermen’s biggest problem: ARBDD has accessed 20% of EU money, citing lack of employees
- How more than 100 million euros earmarked for the Danube Delta have been leaked to hundreds of companies in the country, with work points opened in abandoned gardens and halls in Tulcea
- How millions of lei for the digitalization of Tulcea’s town halls go to the man who brokered the consultancy/ In politics since he was a student, under Simonis, through Burduja’s league, in the chancellery of the Cioloș Government
Ne bucurăm că ne citești!
Dacă vrei să ne și susții:
