A report from the Control Body of the Ministry of Transport reveals how an IT incident at the Romanian Vehicle Registry (RAR) in November 2024 was used to swiftly award multimillion-leu contracts, without a public tender, to the same private company.
According to the document consulted by News.ro, Aegeria Business Consulting became the main provider of hardware and software infrastructure for RAR under „extreme urgency” after a breakdown occurred in the institution’s Data Center. However, auditors claim that the emergency situation was actually caused by the lack of maintenance and failure to fulfill obligations by the RAR management.
Data Center Incident, the Starting Point for Contracts
It all started with the incident on November 21, 2024, when the RAR Data Center was affected after the accidental activation of the aerosol extinguishing system.
The Control Body report states that the situation cannot be considered an unforeseeable accident. Auditors indicate that "the justification of the urgency arose as a result of the failure by the RAR - R.A. management to fulfill obligations and duties."
Based on this "extreme urgency," RAR avoided organizing public tenders and directly awarded Aegeria Business Consulting five contracts for renting new IT infrastructure. The total value of these contracts exceeded 10.6 million lei without VAT.
22 Contracts and Over 13 Million Lei
According to the report, Aegeria obtained a total of 22 contracts from RAR between 2022-2025, with an exact value of 13,707,039.40 lei.
Auditors claim that most acquisitions, especially those made in 2025, were justified by the urgency created after the IT incident in November 2024. The document states that this situation allowed for "non-transparent and non-competitive" acquisitions.
The report also indicates that issues arose due to the lack of risk analysis and maintenance for the existing IT infrastructure.
Contract Signed Just Before the Incident and Auditor Suspicions
One of the contracts analyzed by the Control Body was signed on October 31, 2024, just three weeks before the Data Center incident. The contract, worth 268,262.09 lei without VAT, focused on remediation services for Cisco equipment.
Auditors state that the document contained unusually broad definitions for "force majeure" situations, including "loss or interruption of power sources or communication facilities," precisely the type of issue that occurred on November 21, 2024.
According to the report, this coincidence "indicates a possible anticipation of the event by the management."
Contracts Worth Nearly 7 Million for Cisco Equipment
The majority of the funds came from contracts awarded on April 1, 2025, through negotiation without publishing a participation announcement.
The largest contract - nearly 6.9 million lei - focused on renting Cisco equipment (network devices and IT infrastructure used for large-scale IT systems) for the SIRAR application and the Data Center.
Other contracts included:
- NETAPP storage systems worth over 2 million lei;
- UPS for power supply, valued at 245,000 lei;
- Veeam licenses for data protection, nearly 163,000 lei;
- IBM backup systems, totaling 444,000 lei.
Explosive Profit for the Company with 4 Employees
Financial data reviewed by News.ro show a spectacular growth in Aegeria's business in 2024.
The company's turnover increased from 12.5 million lei in 2023 to over 50 million lei in 2024. At the same time, the company's profit rose from 2.3 million to 15.5 million lei, representing a 549% increase.
All these results were achieved with only four employees, according to the cited source.
The company is managed by Dragoș-Emilian Pârvulescu, with ownership controlled by Emil Pârvulescu and Călin Crișan. The declared main activity is "Wholesale trade of computer and telecommunications equipment."
Until the article's publication, company representatives have not responded to requests for clarification regarding the commercial relationship with RAR.
RAR Management: The Report is Not Public
According to the report, responsibility for the incident and the identified issues lies with the executive management of RAR, represented by Mihai Alecu and Alina Niță.
The institution's director, Mihai Alecu, told News.ro that the Control Body report "is not a public document," and the institution is analyzing the findings and preparing viewpoints for each mentioned aspect.
"The document with the viewpoints of the Romanian Vehicle Registry will be forwarded to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, and we assure you that we will subsequently collaborate with all institutions responsible for clarifying the findings made by the Control Body in that document," Mihai Alecu stated.