A former IT director within the Justice Ministry, Ion Krech, was sentenced to six years and four months in jail for bribery.

He also has to pay damages worth RON 19 million (EUR 4.08 million) to the Justice Ministry, local Hotnews.ro reported. The decision is not final.

Ion Krech, a former IT director within the Justice Ministry, was sent to court in December 2016 for bribery and use of false information.

Between 2012 and 2015, he coordinated two digitization projects carried out by the ministry with EU funds. He was accused of receiving EUR 274,000 bribes from several IT companies that were interested in these projects to help them get the contracts that were worth EUR 29.6 million without VAT. He also made up false reports during the implementation of these projects which allowed the suppliers to get paid even if they didn’t deliver the equipment.

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