Romanian Prosecutor, Fiscal Regulator To Act On Integrity Agency Report – Draft Law

"ANI will prepare an analysis report and forward it to ANAF or the Prosecutor's Office, along with proposals for further action. ANAF or the Prosecutor are compelled to process these conclusions and proposals, adopt a position and inform the dignitary in question about it. ANAF or the Prosecutor can propose action such as distraint or seizure, and start the specific procedure according to their legal abilities. For instance, ANAF can resort to taxing the undeclared assets, in accordance with the Fiscal procedure Code, or can notify the Prosecutor about criminal activity," said Romania's Justice Minister, Catalin Predoiu.

Predoiu pointed out that integrity inspectors will analyze a dignitary's assets, incompatibilities and conflicts of interest, which in no way represents judicial activity, thus laying the Constitutional Court's concerns to rest.

"Before beginning their analysis, integrity inspectors are obliged to invite the person in question to express a written position. The person targeted by ANI analyses has the right to express their point of view before an investigation and support it with data or additional information," Predoiu explained.

The draft law also states that public officials will fill in two statements, called "patrimony statements", namely, a public statement to present the number of bank accounts and buildings owned by the official, and a confidential statement which includes the names of the banks where the official has open accounts, as well as their home address.

The public statement will also present the value of the bank deposit. The new statements will be implemented starting June, when wealth statements should be updated.

Following a Constitutional Court ruling, Romania's integrity agency, a EU-required anticorruption body, has been stripped of its main attributions in screening public officials wealth and interest statements and recommending prosecution for wrongdoing.

The Court, which motivated its decision last week, said the agency mistakes investigative for judicial powers, its publication of public officials' wealth statements breaches the right to privacy and the agency's role, as regulated by law, doesn't apply the presumption of innocence and forces the people investigated to bring in evidence proving their innocence.

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