According to a statement from the General Prosecutor’s Office, as Minister-delegate for Administration, Dobre had Constantin Manoloiu, director of the Population Records and Database Management Department in the Ministry of Administration and Interior, to write a memo to the Constitutional Court that said the Ministry was not sure of the veracity of the number of people registered as voters, although the Ministry itself was the authority in charge of selecting and processing data on eligible voters, and making that data available to mayors.
The Constitutional Court needed the number of voters to rule on the outcome of a referendum to impeach President Traian Basescu, which required a turnout of more than 50%. The Ministry of Interior had sent the Court what it claimed was the right number of voters on August 1, but the next day it transmitted that it could not be sure.
The General Prosecutor argues that this intentional mismanagement caused a serious disturbance of the well-running of public institutions.
Manoloiu was the first person to be probed in this case, but investigators have announced that Dobre and state secretary Ioan Niculae Cabulea were the ones who signed the memo to the Court, and are therefore also guilty of abuse of office.