Valerian Stan
Valerian Stan (born 1955 in Sascut, Bacău County, Romania) is a military officer, human rights activist and civil servant.
In 1974, he graduated from the "George Bacovia" high school Bacău, and in 1977, the Military School of Infantry Officers, "Nicolae Bălcescu" in Sibiu. At the graduation, he became a lieutenant, and he was assigned to the Bucharest garrison, where he worked for almost eight years. Afterwards, until Nicolae Ceauşescu's downfall in December 1989, he fulfilled administrative functions (fuel-lubricant supply) and functions in the area of labor protection, inside a military detachment of constructions in "the national economy". Also, between 1982 and 1987, he attended the courses of the Faculty of Law of the Bucharest University. Valerian Stan used to be deputy chairman of the Romania's Civic Alliance Movement.
In 1997, Valerian Stan, then chief of the prime minister’s inspection agency, was fired when he went public with a list of names of all politicians currently residing in luxurious government-owned homes. Many of these politicians are affiliated with the ruling parties and had been savoring their perks since 1990. (See the article by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi on this issue.) Although Stan’s whistleblowing was welcomed by the public, he was dismissed by Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea, who argued that Stan should have prosecuted "real cases of corruption" instead of engaging in media stunts[1]
Notes
- ↑ For a detailed account of this incident see Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Coalition for transparency – The passage of Freedom Information Act (Foia) in Romania. Case Study, 2001, http://www. transparency.org.ro, and Valerian Stan (interviu): “O demitere politica a unui demnitar apolitic”, in De la post-comunism la pre-tranzitie, ed. Victor Birsan, Bucharest, Pythagora, 1997.