Senior official Arafat says public procurement during pandemic, most politicised, controversial emergency

Head of the Emergency Management Department (DSU) Raed Arafat said on Thursday, referring to discussions in the public square regarding the public procurement of medical supplies during the ongoing COVID-91 pandemic, that it is "the most politicized emergency instance", underlining that the efforts of the General Emergency Management Inspectorate (IGSU) and other bodies have been "overshadowed by false accusations most of the time." "Unfortunately, I can say that if we talk about the crisis we have gone through, it is the most politicised emergency instance we have gone through so far, leaving aside all the others we have gone through. It is the most politicised and most controversial, (...) which is normal, given the long duration of its existence, and it also had this impact, because the effort made by the procurement institutions, IGSU has always been overshadowed by accusations, false most of the time and always correctly explained had I been asked about the procurement method, the transfer method, why I made the transfer with the Ministry of Defence, why I did not leave a company to bring in supplies when there was no functional international transport. All these discussions have overshadowed a little this extraordinary activity, for which we must thank all those who were involved in it and who made it possible to achieve a timely supply for our intervention staff," said Arafat. The statement was made during the presentation of a 2020 activity report of DSU and other bodies operating under its authority. AGERPRES (RO - author: Eusebi Manolache, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)