PSD chairman Sorin Grindeanu stated on Wednesday that he knew Cristian Anton, his former chief of staff, from Timisoara, but he did not bring him to the Ministry of Transport and that he did not have bad references about him when he appointed him to the position.
"When I came to the Ministry of Transport, I obviously tried to find collaborators with whom I had interacted in the past and whom I knew. I met Cristian Anton from Timişoara, being from Timisoara, and there was something else, he worked within the Ministry of Transport. I became minister at the end of 2021. He had been there since around 2012. I did not bring him in. I did not have bad references from those who were supposed to signal to me that there were certain things that were out of place. In fact, I did not have any during my mandate. If I had had such references and things that were outside the law, be sure that I would have taken action," Grindeanu said in Parliament.
He added that his name does not appear in Anton's DNA file and that he has no emotion related to this case.
"Look at the indictment. The name Sorin Grindeanu does not appear anywhere, so I have no reason not to tell things as they are. I have no emotion whatsoever. If I had known about things like this, I would certainly have reported them to those who should punish them. But I remind you that he was not the director of ARR while I was minister," he mentioned.
Sorin Grindeanu was asked if he knew Mariana Ionita, secretary general during the period when he was Minister of Transport.
"He was the Secretary General of the Ministry of Transport. Is it possible that I don't know her? I didn't know her before I went to the Ministry of Transport. He is a man who in the past was also a director at CNAIR and held various positions within the Ministry of Transport. During the time I was minister, he did his job as Secretary General, from my perspective as manager of that ministry. If any of my collaborators broke the law and anyone breaks the law in Romania, they pay. Whether he is chief of staff, whether he is a counselor, whether he is a Secretary General, whether he is a minister, whether he is a president of the country, a prime minister, if you break the law, you pay criminally. If you govern poorly, you pay politically," he mentioned.
Cristian Anton, the head of the Romanian Road Authority (ARR), detained on Tuesday by DNA prosecutors in a case in which he is accused of bribery, use of information not intended for advertising and criminal group, was presented before the judges of the Cluj Tribunal with a proposal to arrest him for 30 days.
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