Head of Romania’s anticorruption agency says she won’t resign, wasn’t asked to

Laura Codruta Kovesi, the chief prosecutor of Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) said, after a meeting with justice minister Tudorel Toader, that the minister did not ask her to resign and she would not resign. “I don’t have any reason to resign, the DNA did it its job. I don’t want to go into too many details about this discussion, you will learn more about it once this stage is completed,” the DNA head said on Monday, quoted by News.ro. On March 12, the justice minister announced the ministry wanted to start an evaluation of the activity of the Public Ministry and of the DNA. Toader said he would have talks with the country’s general prosecutor and the head of the DNA related to the investigation DNA initiated on the Government’s decision to adopt an emergency ordinance that changed the Criminal Code, at the end of January. Meanwhile, the ordinance was repealed by the Government after massive street protests. The justice minister also said the ministry wanted to start an evaluation of the activity of the Public Ministry and of the DNA. In early-February, DNA started looking into how the Government drafted and adopted the controversial emergency ordinance. After several hearings, DNA decided to pass the case to the General Prosecutor’s Office, which was to continue the investigation on charges of favoring the offender, intellectual fraud, submitting inaccurate data to the Parliament or the Romanian President on the work of the Government or a Ministry, and hiding or destroying documents or evidence. However, Romania’s Constitutional Court decided at the end of February that there was a legal conflict between the Government and the DNA due to the investigation on OUG13. Asked whether the correction action was taken in the inquiry about the OUG13, Kovesi said that “we always proceeded correctly,” News.ro reported. On March 15 the Justice Minister met with Romania’s General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar. The general prosecutor said after the meeting that the minister did not ask for his resignation and the discussion they had was “very clarifying and positive, which is a good thing.” The results of the Justice Ministry's assessment were due to be presented this Monday but they were postponed for Wednesday. Romania’s Justice Ministry plans evaluation of Anticorruption Directorate and Public Ministry activity