Romania and Bulgaria must clean up or steer clear of EU

Date: 21/04/05

Romania's President Traian Basescu has some simple advice for anyone keen to know whether corruption is being tackled in his country: "Just watch TV."

Almost daily the media unveil new inquiries being launched or report new arrests, some of them among the business elite. A prominent member of the Liberal Party, a manager of the largest football club, a former senator are among those brought to justice recently. But many say this is only the tip of the iceberg, as failure to seriously tackle corruption in Romania over the last 15 years means most sectors of society are contaminated by this plague.

The head of the National Anti-corruption Prosecutor's office (PNA) Ioan Amarie says his office has so far sent 1,500 people to trial on corruption charges. Of these, 500 have been sentenced. A former government councillor is serving a six-year jail term for claiming €4 million to use his influence over judges, the anti-fraud director from the ministry of agriculture and a manager from the same institution have received a three and five-year jail term for claiming bribes in the process of privatisation of companies. Eleven magistrates and four army generals, as well as 200 business people and numerous customs unions officials have been convicted. Damages in cases already sent to trial amount to €500m and the damage in pending cases is €1 billion.

But Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu has expressed dissatisfaction with the work of the PNA. He threatened that the chief prosecutor would be sacked and replaced if he was not performing his task with enough determination.

The Justice Minister Monica Macovei intends to put forward a proposal under which the chief prosecutor for anti-corruption would be held responsible for the performance of his office and could be dismissed if he or she was deemed to be lacking in efficiency. Up to now the holder of this post could only be sacked for disciplinary failings.

Macovei says that an external audit and two other reports have shown that the PNA has not been very efficient since it was set up in 2003. "It did not have a pro-active approach. 90% of the cases it dealt with came to its attention following calls from individuals. It was reactive, it had no plan, it worked randomly," she says.

One of the reasons the PNA has failed so far to make an impact on corruption is that it dealt with many small cases, even though it was created to tackle big corruption cases, following the model of the Spanish anti-corruption office. In January, the jurisdiction of the PNA was changed to cases involving damages of more than €100,000 (previously the threshold was 20,000 euro) and Macovei thinks the law should be changed again for the level of prejudice to be set higher.

"The level of prejudice and the position of the people involved should be important. High prejudice or cases involving people of high level will be their priority." The PNA should limit its investigations to mayors of local councils. All other cases should be dealt with by ordinary prosecutors, she says.

Macovei says that measures were taken to enhance the independence of prosecutors dealing with corruption cases vis-à-vis the chief prosecutor and put them beyond political pressure. Under recent changes, the distribution of cases to prosecutors would be done through random criteria (such as alphabetical order) and not by decision of the chief prosecutor. In addition, the possibility for the chief prosecutor to take one case away from one prosecutor and give it to another was brought to an end. "This is to strengthen the prosecutors in their work and strengthen their independence."

The justice minister is also thinking of a law on salaries for judges and prosecutors to redress the present discrimination under which those dealing with corruption cases are paid 40% more than the others.

Macovei says measures will be taken to reduce the backlog of cases in court, by reducing the time span between hearings, for instance. But she opposes special procedures in court for corruption cases, because this would raise question marks over the rights of the defendants.

Macovei, who is politically independent, claims that because she is not a member of any political party, her work enjoys "political support" but is "free of political influence".

A reporter investigating corruption cases says that this government still has to prove that it is determined to fight corruption in practice. "During electoral campaigns, all political parties say they would fight against corruption. But the question is what do they do when they hold power," he says.

"There are structures in place. They can be improved - and they have been improved. But they just have to do it. It is not rocket science. They only need political will."

He says that the present government's determination will be tested once large cases involving "the big sharks" are investigated.

The reporter believes that tangible results can only be achieved after a cultural change. "People would have to feel that they don't have to pay an official for a service which is due to them. And officials would have to learn that claiming bribes is a direct ticket to jail. That's still a long way off."

Article looks at the fight against corruption on Romania, one of the major concerns of the European Union ahead of the country's accession to the EU, planned for 2007.