Monday, November 19th 2001: "Counselor of Privatization Agency Chief Is Manager of Mrs. Nastase's Firm - Prime Minister's Spouse Is 'Associate' to APAPS"
Sorin Ozon, Stefan Candea
Privatization Minister Ovidiu Musetescu almost always appears in public accompanied by two elegantly dressed ladies. They are personal counselors to the head of APAPS [Privatization Authority and Management of State Shareholding]. More precisely, they are: Mrs Roxana Bichel, counselor in charge of industrial issues, and Ionica Pantazescu, counselor in charge of legal issues. Rumor has it that they are the ones who actually lead the agency, and that APAPS Minister Musetescu lacks the courage to oppose Roxana Bichel, whose friendship with Dana Nastase, the spouse of the prime minister, is well known to everyone. Aside from Mrs Nastase's name, it is interesting to see what is happening under the very eyes of the prime minister, in the premises of APAPS, which managed by Adrian Nastase's party and government colleague, Minister Musetescu. This is the place where many employees earn money from two sources: from the taxpayers, but also from privately owned firms.
Family Businesses
Mrs Bichel's friendship with Mrs Nastase is
not just a rumor. It has taken concrete form in a firm called Datis Consulting
& Management SRL. [Ltd.]. The prime minister's wife holds 99.95 percent
of the company's shares; the other shareholder is Smaranda Corbeanu. The company
managers are Roxana Bichel and a certain Didi Marius Crisan Mircea. Mrs Bichel's
important position in APAPS has also made her eligible for other positions.
She is on the boards of several important companies: Neptun Olimp SA, Sidex
iron and steel plant in Galati (she recently stepped down from this position
to make room for the new owners of the plant, but she is also a member of the
Commission in charge of Sidex's privatization), and Tarom [Romanian state air
company]. She is also a member of the committee in charge of BCR's [Romanian
Trade Bank] privatization. Besides all the aforementioned positions, Mrs Bichel
is
a shareholder in Onda Trading SRL, where she holds 51 percent of the stock,
the rest of them being owned by the already mentioned Didi Marius Crisan Mircea,
who also acts as manager of Mrs Nastase's firm. All this made it possible for
Mrs Bichel to purchase a luxury Kia-type automobile only a few months after
she joined APAPS. She offered her Romanian-made Dacia car to the poorer employees
of the ministry.
Contacted over the phone, Mrs Bichel told us,
"I ceased to be manager of Datis before I joined APAPS; anyway, this company
has nothing to do with my duties here. It may well be that the changes have
not yet been entered in the papers at the Trade Registrar's Office." If
this should indeed be the case, we cannot understand why Mrs Bichel did not
offer to personally present the documents confirming the changes in the Trade
Registrar's documents, so as to eliminate any doubt. Above all, however, we
would have been interested in her explaining to us how her APAPS position is
compatible with her other positions as manager or shareholder of private companies,
be they owned even by the prime minister's wife.