In 2004, when contracts worth $54.5 million and $19.3 million with the state were signed, Florica was head of Fujitsu Romania, Microsoft’s partner involved in the contract. In 2009, when contracts worth EUR90.1 million and EUR13.9 million were signed with Microsoft, Florica’s name appears in connection with partners that signed the papers.
The information supplied by the Communications Ministry regarding contracts with Microsoft and its partners, as well as market information and data available in documents published by companies in the Official Gazette shows the involvement in some way of Romanian Claudiu Florica in all giant contracts through which the Romanian Government bought software from Microsoft. Florica over the years held several management positions in a number of IT companies.
The Romanian state’s contracts with Microsoft became a global story after US newspaper The Wall Street Journal, the world’s best-known business newspaper, wrote on Tuesday, citing sources close to the federal authorities, that the US Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had started an investigation into alleged bribery paid by Microsoft representatives and partners of the software developer to government officials in China, Romania and Italy in return for software contracts.
The publication did not give the names of the suspected companies, but said in a request for information sent to the Romanian Communications Ministry (which was then published by the ministry) that the period targeted by the investigation of the federal authorities was 2008-2009.
WSJ said in its message to the Communications Ministry that the amount targeted by bribery suspicions was $26 million. The information was not included in the article as the ministry said data largely did not match that in the institution’s archive. The WSJ article does not make any reference to any specific period being targeted by the federal authorities in Romania.
After the scandal broke, the Communications Ministry offered as a first a detailed record of contracts signed with the Romanian state by the US company and its partners.
Data provided by the ministry, corroborated with decisions of the Boc and Tariceanu-led Governments, shows that two addenda signed by the state with Microsoft could be those targeted.
One addendum was that initially signed in June by the Tariceanu cabinet, worth $26 million. But later its value was boosted to $31 million by adding VAT. However, the payment was made in 2009, when the Communications Minister was Gabriel Sandu, the Prime Minister was Emil Boc and the vicepremier was Dan Nica.
The second addendum that would fit the WSJ description is one issued by the Tariceanu cabinet just two weeks before elections, worth $26 million. This bill issued by Fujitsu was never paid, as minister Gabriel Sandu refused to make the payment in 2009, when it was due. Sandu says this is the contract that the scandal originated from.
Microsoft Romania never made any public comment on the state not paying a $26 million bill, nor has Fujitsu or any other player involved in the transactions.
By comparing data of transactions between the state, Microsoft and the latter’s partners in 2008-2009, it results that the largest contract was signed in 2009, worth a total of EUR104 million.
These contracts marked the return into Microsoft’s partner team of Claudiu Florica, who ran Fujitsu Siemens in 2004, when the first licensing agreement between the Romanian state and the US company was signed. The contract for the first time allowed Romanian institutions to legally use Microsoft products.
Even currently, the companies that Florica’s name is linked to – D-Con.Net AG and D.I.M. Soft are in negotiations with the Romanian state for a new giant contract for software licenses, worth EUR33 million.
The contract is still being negotiated and has yet to be signed, according to information sent by the Communications Ministry.
Gabriel Sandu (PD-L), Communications Minister in 2009, when the Romanian state paid $31 million to Microsoft and its partners and signed further contracts worth EUR104 million, on Wednesday told ZF that it was impossible for agreements signed during his term in office to be suspected of corruption as they were signed under the strict monitoring of the Government, the IMF and the secret services, and blames the current scandal on his refusal to agree to the payment of a $26 million bill to Fujitsu.
“It was impossible to suspect an act of corruption. After all the complaints made by companies and given the involvement of the Presidency, of the Government and of the services in talks surrounding this contract, this was impossible. Anyway the Communications Ministry was just a channel because all license orders came from the institutions. Each institution validated the number of licenses, we only centralized them,” Sandu said.
He added that an international auction was organized and published in the EU’s public procurement journal.
“We expected 200 Microsoft dealers to come to the auction. In what demented scenario could we have expected that only one would come, out of 200? Because of limitations imposed by the EU Microsoft cannot come directly to the auction, only through resellers, but only if they are authorized by Microsoft. We cannot accept a reseller in an auction unless they are accepted by Microsoft as a dealer. Otherwise there is no legal basis.”
(English version by Daniela Stoican)