Update: District 3 mayor Robert Negoiță reacted to the DNA investigation, claiming he was forced to build the roads “illegally” because the urban planning documentation is blocked by the Bucharest City Hall.

“The legal way is to make urban planning documentation, to carry out expropriations, and then to build. Because all our urban planning documentation has been blocked for about 4 years at the General City Hall, we cannot. We cannot do our work legally and correctly [...]. Even so, the citizens, quite rightly, request these things from us,” the mayor said during a press conference cited by Digi24.

Negoiță maintained that he “did not do a favor for those whose land we occupied with public roads,” but a disservice, since the District 3 authorities paid no compensation. “I did not build any public road for my brother. I built public roads for District 3, free to be used by any citizen,” he said.

Initial story: Anti-corruption prosecutors conducted searches in 11 locations in Bucharest and Ilfov County, including the headquarters of the District 3 City Hall, on Thursday, February 5, in a case of abuse of office. According to judicial sources cited by Agerpres, checks have also been carried out at the home of District 3 mayor Robert Negoiță.

The offenses investigated pertain to the construction of several streets without proper legal documents. Specifically, the City Hall, led by mayor Robert Negoiță, allegedly used public funds to build a road to a real estate project owned by the mayor’s brother, Ionuț Negoiță.

“Prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Directorate are conducting investigations in a criminal case concerning suspicions regarding the commission, in the period 2017–2025, of crimes assimilated to corruption. The acts under investigation were allegedly committed by public officials, with the support of accomplices, and concern construction and asphalting works on several streets in District 3 of Bucharest, which were allegedly carried out without legal documents,” DNA announced in a press release.

Last year, independent journalists at Recorder reported that Robert Negoiță had ordered, in recent years, the illegal construction of 11 asphalt roads over gas mains in eastern Bucharest. The roads were built in disregard of the warnings of danger from gas operator Transgaz.

The mayor responded at the time to the accusations, stating that the roads had always been there, and the gas pipes appeared later. Following inspections, one of these roads was closed.

Commenting on the investigation, Bucharest prefect Andrei Nistor told Digi24 that the roads, built over gas pipelines, are still not closed.

“I noticed something sad: it was built without permits, over a gas main, on private land, and it was not even City Hall land. There were some former dirt roads, some lanes, practically,” said the prefect, referring to the land owned by the mayor’s brother.

Nistor said those roads were needed because the area has developed a lot in recent years.

“Unfortunately, everything was done in a rush: ‘let’s asphalt them, we won’t wait for permits.’ And a disaster could have happened, like in other places, like Rahova, for example,” said the prefect, referring to the building in District 5 that exploded due to gas leaks.

Recorder also published information regarding the road allegedly built for the mayor’s brother. According to the journalists, the road was built with City Hall machinery, personnel, and materials behind the Laminor Hall, which allows access to the area where Ionuț Negoiță’s companies will construct the HILS Republica real estate complex, not far from the subway station of the same name.

radu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Sabin Cirstoveanu)