EPPO Charges Romanian Officials Over Fraud in EU-Funded Tugboats

The European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) has filed an indictment with Romanian courts against four officials of the Lower Danube River Administration (AFDJ Galați), an individual and a company, over an alleged fraud scheme in the procurement of two EU-funded tugboats for the Danube River. According to prosecutors, the case caused an estimated damage of around €7 million to the EU budget.

The purchase of the two multipurpose, ice-class tugboats was financed through the 2014-2020 Large Infrastructure Operational Programme and was meant to improve navigation on the Lower Danube, including during low-water periods, and to assist vessels in distress. EPPO contends that the tender specifications included technical requirements typical of seagoing vessels, even though the tugboats were intended for inland waterways, which would have restricted the number of bidders and favored a single company.

The tugboats were delivered in 2021 - in July of that year, according to Baird Maritime - with an actual draft of 2.6 meters, above the 2-meter maximum set out in the contract. Despite this discrepancy, the four public officials allegedly accepted the vessels and signed final acceptance certificates falsely stating that they met the required technical specifications.

EPPO warns that the excess draft limits the safe use of the tugboats to stretches of the Danube with sufficiently high water levels, thereby reducing their usefulness precisely during the low-water periods for which they were designed. The indictment was filed with the Iași court, and if convicted, the defendants could face sentences ranging from three to ten and a half years in prison; all remain presumed innocent pending a final ruling.

According to Baird Maritime, the tender was launched in September 2019 with a total contract value of 35,144,000 Romanian lei (about $7,302,505), and in March 2024 EPPO had raided twelve premises linked to AFDJ and the Romanian Naval Authority. At the time, local media reported that the river tugboat lot had been awarded to Tehnorex International after a single bid was submitted, while the then general director of AFDJ Galați, Angela Ivan, stated that the tender had been approved by the national public procurement agency and that the tugboats had already been used in certain river operations.