Radio România Internațional

Tag: National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA)

  • Anticorruption annual report

    Anticorruption annual report

    5,400 anticorruption investigations were closed and nearly 260 people holding management positions were prosecuted in Romania last year, according to the activity report presented by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA). It was one of the Directorate’s best years, says the head of the institution, Marius Voineag, with numerous achievements and a generally positive trend, confirmed by the evolution of statistical, quantitative and qualitative indicators and especially by the increase in the diversity of the type of evidence administered and the significant decrease in the degree of acquittals. The anticorruption chief prosecutor says the institution he leads has technical capabilities that rival those of Western institutions. Marius Voineag also announced he intends to continue to prioritize cases where a lot of money is at stake, due to high temptations and the significant impact such cases have on society. “You won’t get away with the money”, Marius Voineag told those who violate the law.

     

    “At the end of last year, the balance of assets effectively frozen amounted to over €56 million. Over the course of 2024, precautionary measures were ordered in the amount of €47 million, reflecting our constant concern for the recovery of criminal proceeds generated by corruption or similar crimes. The intensification of our activity in terms of recovering the proceeds of crime is intended to send a message to all those who are tempted to commit corruption or similar abuses, in the sense that no one should ever be able to keep the money”.

     

    Attending the official presentation of the Directorate’s yearly activity report, Interior Minister Cătălin Predoiu spoke about the global phenomenon of corruption, which has gained momentum, despite efforts to stop it, both in Romania and at global level. Regarding the recovery of crime-derived proceeds, the Romanian official believes Romania is far from an ideal position, and that there is a need for better institutional and international cooperation, the adaptation of tactics and the specialization of police officers and prosecutors.

     

    “There has been talk for years about recovering the proceeds of crime. Great efforts have been made in this regard in recent times. Progress has been made, we have the relevant institutions, the culture has changed too, it is very true. But I think we are, however, far from the ideal goal of not letting anyone keep the money. The truth is that many people are left with a lot of money, as we well know. So, there is room for improvement in this direction of recovering the proceeds of crime. Of course, it remains to be seen whether we also need to improve the legislative framework, whether it is a matter of tactics or method. At any rate, we all know it is very difficult, on the other hand, to recover absolutely all the proceeds of crime. That’s virtually impossible and I think that no country in the world manages to accomplish that”.

     

    Cătălin Predoiu also emphasized that combating corruption must remain a top priority, and the institutions involved in the process should continue to show good results. (VP)

  • Anticorruption and the independence of the judiciary

    Anticorruption and the independence of the judiciary


    The head of the National Anticorruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi is often described, both by her unconditional supporters and her sworn enemies, as the most powerful woman in Romania. The former see her as the spearhead of the fight against corruption and a goddess of vengeance on the politicians who enrich themselves by plundering public budgets. The latter paint her as the head of a reprisal machine that does not hesitate to break the law and disrespect human rights in order to build cases at political command. A controversial figure in Bucharest, Kovesi has been invited to New York to attend a debate on the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Convention against Corruption. In her address at the UN headquarters, she said the greatest challenge for Romania is maintaining the independence of judges and prosecutors.



    Laura Codruta Kovesi: “There have been repeated attempts to limit the efficiency of our investigations by initiatives of amending the anti-corruption legislation, by restricting the tools used by the prosecutors or by denying waiving the immunity of the politicians involved in corruption cases. The entire justice system has faced attacks in the form of fake news and public statements which could weaken the public trust in the judiciary.”



    This is how the head of the National Anticorruption Directorate summed up the situation in the last one and half year, a period in which the ruling coalition formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats has been accused of trying to put an end to the fight against corruption and place magistrates at their orders. In the last five years alone, said Kovesi, the Directorate has indicted 14 current and former ministers and 53 MPs. 27 of them have already received final sentences. In the same period, the Directorate has seized more than 2.3 billion dollars.



    The justice minister Tudorel Toader responded from Bucharest that the acquittals, the legal conflicts of a constitutional nature, the cases affected by the statute of limitations and the abuses are not fake news. Toader, who has already unsuccessfully called on president Klaus Iohannis to dismiss Kovesi, rhetorically wondered if the principles of the rule of law allow for well-built cases to lead to so many acquittals. He was referring to cases built by the National Anticorruption Directorate against the former Social Democratic prime minister Victor Ponta and his minister Dan Sova, the Liberal Democrat speaker of the Senate Calin Popescu Tariceanu and the former senator and constitutional judge Toni Grebla, all of whom have been acquitted in courts in recent weeks.



    For all its resounding successes and its painful failures, the fight against corruption must continue, the media in Bucharest say. Proof of this is a recent report on Romania drawn up by the European Commission. Although dealing predominantly with economic issues, the report points out that what has happened in the last one year and a half has to a large extent raised question marks over the irreversibility of the progress made in reforming the legal system and combating high-level corruption, a scourge that threatens the business environment itself. (translated by Cristina Mateescu)