Last year, Toni Greblă received more money than he was legally entitled to for the position of President of the Permanent Electoral Authority. The Court of Accounts discovered the illegality and asked him to return a portion of the sum. Clotilde Armand, the Mayor of Sector 1, filed a complaint with the National Integrity Agency in this case.
A former judge at the Constitutional Court and President of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), a position from which he is supposed to oversee the correct conduct of elections in Romania, Toni Greblă (71 years old) received over 700,000 lei (140,000 euros) last year from pensions, special pensions, salaries, and per diems.
However, the Court of Accounts found that the President of the AEP issued an order to increase his gross salary by 50% and asked him to return the money received illegally. According to Snoop.ro, the amount to be recovered is nearly 24,000 euros.
Here's what emerges from the documents consulted by the investigative site:
- Order 174 of March 30, 2023, issued by the President of the Permanent Electoral Authority and countersigned by the then Secretary-General, as well as other departments, established a monthly allowance for the position of President of the AEP at 31,500 lei gross.
- The calculation was based on a coefficient of 10.5, which was multiplied by the minimum gross basic salary guaranteed nationwide of 3,000 lei.
- Until Toni Greblă took over the AEP, the coefficient of 10.5 was multiplied by 2,080 lei. By applying the new formula, the gross salary increased by 50%.
- With this order, Greblă started receiving a net salary of 18,427 lei per month (almost 3,700 euros) from the first day of taking office as President.
- In addition to the salary, the President of the AEP also receives a monthly travel allowance, which is provided to employees who do not reside in Bucharest, even if they have official housing from RAAPPS and a service car with fuel expenses reimbursed.
- The travel allowance of 2% of the gross monthly allowance or gross monthly base salary varied from month to month, with the total amount for 2023 in Toni Greblă's case being 94,185 lei (almost 19,000 euros).
- Almost half of the money cannot be justified, as indicated by the Court of Accounts. In total, with salary and allowance, Greblă declared net earnings of over 260,000 lei (52,000 euros) in 2023 for the nine months of his term. This means almost 29,000 lei per month (approximately 6,000 euros).
- The Court of Accounts' audit at the AEP found that nearly 24,000 euros received by the AEP chief in 2023 cannot be justified. The amounts presented refer to gross salary, not net, plus allowances and are related to the period from April to December 2023.
The Court of Accounts inspectors have issued several recommendations to the Permanent Electoral Authority to remedy the situation:
- establishing the monthly allowance for the president of the institution according to current legal regulations, namely 21,840 lei gross;
- recalculating the differences in salary rights representing monthly allowances and daily travel allowances granted above legal ceilings, from the date of the president's appointment until the application of the monthly allowance level in accordance with legal provisions;
- recording in the accounts all salary debts to be recovered;
- recovering salary debts and making adjustments for social contributions and income tax.
Greblă gives the money back but blames the former Secretary-General
Toni Greblă signed a payment commitment to return the money, but the AEP only partially took into account the audit conducted by the Court of Accounts, as reported by Snoop.ro.
In an accounting note dated April 1, 2024, the AEP records that it has to recover 101,530 lei for 2023 and 18,973 for the months of January to February 2024. In the response sent to the Court of Accounts, the AEP argues that it cannot classify Toni Greblă under the minimum gross national salary for individuals without higher education, and in this case, the reporting should be done at 2,350 lei, to which the coefficient of 10.5 is applied.
The representatives of the Authority argue that, in the case of ministers, mayors, or parliamentarians, higher education is not required, but for the position of AEP President, it is mandatory.
The salary of the President of the Permanent Authority began to decrease from March onwards.
Contacted by Snoop.ro, Toni Greblă blamed the former Secretary-General of the Authority, Constantin-Florin Mitulețu-Buică. "It was an error made by the former Secretary-General at the time. I received the decision on the day I was appointed, without checking its source. I thought that was how it was," he justified. Furthermore, the AEP President claims that he called the Court of Accounts to correct the situation.
Clotilde Armand files a complaint with ANI
The Mayor of Sector 1, Clotilde Armand, filed an electronic complaint with the National Integrity Agency on Monday morning regarding the sums received by Toni Greblă.
"Toni Greblă, the dignitary who is supposed to ensure the fairness of the elections in November - December 2024, calmly admits that he signed the illegal order and is returning the money," Armand stated on Facebook.
According to her, Toni Greblă was appointed to lead the AEP with the mission to "sabotage all elections" this year.
"The President of ANI, who is the brother of a PSD state secretary, will do somersaults this morning, just so he doesn't read the journalistic investigation, because he doesn't want to disturb Marcel Ciolacu's electoral campaign. Toni Greblă was placed at the AEP with a party mission to sabotage all elections this year, a fact that was evident this summer," claimed Clotilde Armand.
The Mayor of Sector 1 has also had issues with ANI. Clotilde Armand sued the institution following a report declaring her incompatible and in a conflict of interest for being designated as a project manager and increasing her monthly allowance by up to 30%, thus receiving allowances of 18,000 lei.
In April, prosecutors decided to indict the mayor for abusing her position to favor certain individuals.