Romania’s Anticorruption Directorate: A third of those sent to court in 2017 held public office

Romania’s Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) solved a higher than ever number of cases last year, according to the institution’s annual report presented by head anticorruption prosecutor Laura Codruţa Kovesi. A third of those sent to court in DNA cases held high offices, while the EU funds fraud cases increased in number. The DNA solved 3,893 cases in 2017, the highest number solved in one year since the establishment of the institution. A total of 997 defendants were sent to court in 2017, and a third of them held public dignity offices. “Three ministers, five deputies, one senator, a former president of the Chamber of Deputies and a secretary general of a minister were sent to court. These numbers mainly show that the corrupt held high office. They have recipes for defrauding the public money. Everyone knows what they have to do and who to speak with,” Kovesi said, quoted by News.ro. A total of 344 defendants were sent to court in EU funds fraud cases investigated over the past two years. Kovesi called for mechanisms that would make institutions accountable “so as not to wait so many years to make a denouncement and then hand over the responsibility to the prosecutors.” The call comes as the DNA is sometimes alerted about criminal acts that took place 9 or 10 years before. In 2017, the institution identified two cases where the acts were prescribed, and 34 cases where the acts were already prescribed when the case reached the DNA. The public acquisitions system was another area where the DNA worked in 2017, and sent 189 defendants to court for abuse of office. “The data show a worrisome situation of the abuse of office phenomenon, which mainly manifests itself in the public acquisitions domain. It shows that we lack a clean and transparent public acquisitions system,” Kovesi said. A 2016 decision of the country’s Constitutional Court allows prosecutors to investigate only abuse of service deeds that generate the embezzlement of public money because of the breach of primary legislation, meaning laws or ordinances. This decision led to the closing of 275 cases entailing combined damages of EUR 140 million, Kovesi explained. The prosecutor asked in how many of these cases did the other state institutions start procedures to establish the disciplinary, administrative or civilian responsibility. “In how many cases did the other institutions act to recover these damages? Is there an interest for recovering the money, lost by the citizens, by the communities?” Kovesi asked. The head anti-graft prosecutor said the DNA is opposed to the weakening of the legislation, to the elimination of instruments that are useful in proving serious deeds were committed, and to changing the statute of the magistrate’s independence. “We do not make the law, we apply it,” she said. “Our plea is for a stable legislation, for legislation where prosecutors are independent." Kovesi said that the anticorruption prosecutors do not cherry-pick cases. She was responding to accusations made by the justice minister that the DNA is prioritizing cases that have an impact in the media. At a