Anticorruption prosecutors charge Romanian Army chief for complicity in abuse of office

General Gheorghiță Vlad, Chief of the General Staff of the Romanian Army, was charged by the military section of the National Anticorruption Directorate, or DNA, on Tuesday, June 2, for complicity in abuse of office.

DNA military prosecutors claimed that, in July 2025, the Chief of the Defence Staff, “through acts of complicity,” “facilitated the issuance and signing,” by Lieutenant General Iulian Berdilă, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff for Operations and Training, of a request to the Ministry of Education. This request, according to DNA, concerned “the increase of budget-funded places for the National University of Physical Education and Sport,” according to the official press release.

The request exceeded the legal bounds, as it was the exclusive responsibility of the General Directorate for Human Resources Management, a central structure within the Ministry of National Defence (MApN).

“The official document [...] would have led to the decision to increase by 20 the number of budget-funded places, by promoting candidates initially admitted to tuition-paying places to the newly created budget-funded places,” according to DNA.

Prosecutors stated that, in this way, “an undue benefit was created for the 20 candidates, promoting them from tuition-paying places to the newly created budget-funded places. Upon completion of university studies, three candidates would be employed in officer positions within the Ministry of National Defence.”

Among the candidates who benefited from this were also the daughter of a colleague of General Vlad Gheorghiță.

Gheorghiță Vlad was sworn in as Chief of the Defence Staff on November 30, 2023.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)