Florin Manole warns that Romania risks a financial correction of up to 70 million euros after deceased persons were reported to the European Commission as having been deinstitutionalized

Labor Minister Florin Manole said Monday that Romania risks a financial correction of up to 70 million euros after reports concerning deceased persons were identified in documents submitted to the European Commission.

The problems appeared in the Excel files used to centralize data in the deinstitutionalization process. Next to some people’s names was the notation “deceased,” and the minister argued that this information should have been checked before the documents were sent to Brussels.

Manole specified that the appearance of the notations does not automatically prove the existence of intentional fraud, but indicates an insufficient and unprofessional verification procedure. “Writing ‘deceased’ in Excel did not happen spontaneously. Someone wrote it there,” the minister said on Antena 3 CNN.

The reports were prepared in July and August of last year, according to the established schedule, with the involvement of local authorities across the country. Subsequent checks and observations by the European Commission uncovered irregularities in the submitted documents. The final amount of any potential correction has not been established.

The minister also said that there is an initiative in Parliament concerning social contributions for part-time contracts, without announcing a decision.