- On April 24, the Education Department of the Voluntary City Hall concludes in less than an hour two direct contracts by which it buys 15,000 postcards. Added to these are 5,500 “packages” of sweets. The two purchases exceed 30,000 euros.
- A week ago, Florentin Pandele published several images of gifts received by children from the institution under his supervision. Each box received by the students is stamped with the town hall logo and a message from the mayor of Voluntari.
- Also on the occasion of the Easter holidays, the Voluntari Education Department recently bought food such as wheat flour, corn flour, sugar and cake. The food, which cost almost 130 thousand euros, is for 15,000 families in Voluntari.
- In the description of the purchase, the institution subordinated to Mayor Florentin Pandele did not specify whether these food aids will be granted based on social criteria.
- In Voluntari, according to the INS, on January 1, 2024, 38,022 people with the right to vote were registered.
Electoral sweets, on the eve of Easter
5,500 students from Voluntari received a package of sweets colored green and illustrated with bunnies and painted eggs in the school week before the Easter vacation. Above these illustrations, next to the City Hall logo, a holiday message signed by the city mayor was also inscribed.
“May the light of the Lord’s Resurrection guide your way and bring you peace and tranquility in your soul. Happy Holidays with your loved ones! – Mayor Pandele Florentin Costel”is the message that covers half of the candy package.
The action of distributing packages for children was made public by the mayor Florentin Pandele himself through a post on his politician page. Here, recently, “sponsored” messages are sent to increase their chances of being seen by facebook users in the area.
Also on this profile, Florentin Pandele officially announced his candidacy for a seventh term as mayor of Voluntari.
The purchase of gifts for the children was made through a structure of the town hall and cost almost 26 thousand euros, public money. Each package contained seven types of sweets as follows:
- oreo biscuits (60 gr.) – 1 pc.;
- nadi twin cherry cake (60 gr.) – 1 piece;
- kinder bueno (43 gr.) – 1 piece;
- rabbit (60 gr.) – 1 pc.;
- sugar free wafers with lemon (24 gr.) – 1 pc.;
- crunchy coconut with strawberries (32 gr.) – 1 pc;
- coconut (42 gr.) – 1 pc
Moreover, the Voluntari Education Directorate did not specify the price breakdown for each individual product. A simple calculation shows that each product costs, on average, 3.3 lei, but there are also sweets on the list which, at most online stores, cost only 1 lei.
Pandele’s “bag”.
The gifts for the children of the Volunteer schools came at the end of another action, already a tradition, of distributing “attentions” for citizens with the right to vote around the main religious holidays. At the beginning of April, an auction made through a simplified procedure for the purchase of several basic foods was concluded.
More than 130 thousand euros left the accounts of the Directorate of Education to buy food for “approximately 15,000 families from the city of Voluntari on the occasion of the Easter holidays”. According to the INS, on January 1, 2024, 38,022 people with the right to vote were registered within the locality. In theory, that would mean one bag for every household.
The 15,000 Easter packages contain eight foods as follows:
- Wheat flour
- Cornflour
- Sugar
- Oil for cooking
- Rice
- Tomatoes in broth
- green peas
- Sweet bread
The directorate under Mayor Pandele did not mention the price of each individual package, nor how much it spent on each food item. However, a simple calculation shows that each package removed more than 45 lei from the institution’s accounts.
Also, the purchase description does not specify the criteria based on which food packages are distributed to families in Voluntari.
It is not the first year that the institutions led by Florentin Pandele offer food stamped with his name to the residents of Voluntari. Buletin de Bucharest also wrote in 2020 about the packages offered by the Education Directorate on the eve of the Easter holidays, but also in 2019 when it offered food before Christmas.
Thousands of euros for congratulations with the mayor’s holiday message
On the same day that the sweets were bought for the students of Voluntari, the same direction under the mayor purchased another four thousand euros for 15,000 greeting cards.
It is not clear from the description of the purchase what the greeting cards were bought for and what message they will contain. The only details available are related to the type of carton and its size.
Andreea Constantinescu, the public administrator of the Voluntari City, and the mayor’s daughter, conveyed to Buletin de Bucharest reporters, immediately after Florentin Pandele was contacted for a point of view related to the appropriateness of such purchases from public money, that the congratulations are inscribed with a message from the mayor as mayor in office, not as a candidate.
Andreea Constantinescu also said that all the purchased products and greetings have already reached the residents of Voluntari.
She also stated that the packets of sweets inscribed with a message from the mayor were handed to the children 2-3 weeks ago. However, the documents consulted by Buletin de București show a different reality. The purchase contract was only concluded on April 24, almost a week ago.
Mayor Florentin Pandele did not return with any answer to the questions asked by Buletin de București reporters. The Directorate of Education would come back with a written answer after the Easter holidays, according to the public administrator’s statement.
Tags: Electoral Easter Voluntari sweets children food worth thousand euros packages stamped message Florentin Pandele
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