Corruption in Romania

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Corruption in Romania is an everyday occurrence at all levels of the country; Corruption and abuse of office in Romania are considered a structural mass phenomenon. The head of a study by the European Union (EU) speaks of a “culture of corruption” that is deeply rooted in the moral, conceptual and practical attitudes of large parts of the Romanian population and is often accepted as a normal problem-solving strategy.

The reasons for this are the widespread poverty of the population, the underpayment of public servants, as well as the still unstable legal situation and in particular the self-enrichment mentality of the political and economic elites. According to surveys, 96 percent of Romanians believe that corruption is one of the most serious problems in the country. A third of the respondents were able to give examples of paying their own bribes in the past 12 months. The Romanian language has 30 idioms for describing bribes. The originally Slavic and Turkish terms bacșiș , ciubuc , șperț , șpagă and mită already appeared in the oldest Romanian texts .

In 2018, Romania was ranked 63rd in the global corruption perception index of Transparency International.Although there is domestic political will and external pressure - especially from the EU - for reforms, the security authorities and the judiciary are structural reasons for the phenomenon and with them The task is often overwhelmed or part of the problem itself.

history

Before joining the European Union

The literary scholar and sociologist Caius Dobrescu sees the corrupt mentality in today's Romania as rooted in the historical "Wallachian conditions" from the time of the Phanariot rule, when the Ottoman Empire occupied Romania and installed Byzantine governors. Ottoman officials did not see themselves as guardians of the common goods, but as owners of their respective offices and consequently their area of ​​responsibility more as a branch of business than an administrative unit. At that time it was customary for Romanian princes to buy their power or obtain it through intrigue, not to shape anything but to exercise power. Instead of a productive one, it was always a consuming society that exploited and plundered the population. This centuries-old tradition still makes changes difficult today.

Another reason for the ubiquitous corruption lies in the political education of those responsible. At the time of the almost closed communist economic system under Nicolae Ceaușescu , only those who had relationships and connections to the highest levels of the Romanian Communist Party were able to gain access to wealth . The culture of corruption should be guided in quasi-institutional channels and expanded through the nepotist system of rule . The Ceaușescu system was based on hierarchically organized loyalty that was secured either by coercion or by "gifts". So it was established down to the lowest administrative levels - down to the office of the village policeman - what the elite practiced. Ceaușescu secured loyalty by assigning the most important offices to his family members and, when in doubt, creating new posts for loyal pupils. If he trusted his own family and thus de facto created a dynastic socialism, he mistrusted the rest of the top management and practiced a principle of rotation of offices for which he alone was responsible. It meant that his highest government officials always had to court his favor or that of his relatives, mostly in the form of "gifts", hasty obedience and the performance of personal tasks. Nobody could claim security for their own post, because in an emergency, Ceaușescu also had his own followers arrested. This resulted in tightly woven and mistrustful networks of corruption.

One month before the political change , Der Spiegel wrote about the Romanian border control system in 1989: “Romanian customs officers, notorious for their brutality and corruption”, “[…] plunder […] returning compatriots, Hungarians, Poles and former Romanian Germans who visit their starving relatives want to blatantly out. A good part of the contents of the car, which has to be presented down to the last piece on wide benches, disappears under the nimble fingers of the border guards, who take turns as soon as the large inner pockets of their coats are full. Cigarettes, coffee, chocolate, schnapps bottles and cans of cola, soap, chewing gum, medicines, even toilet paper - all inaccessible luxury goods for the people behind the barrier - are the prey of the police officers, and for the rest the visitors have to pay hundreds of marks in customs. in foreign exchange, of course. "

In the 1970s and 1980s, the American cigarette brand Kent established itself in the Romanian population as the second, unofficial and most popular “baksheesh” currency as the preferred means of barter. A Kent brand cigarette or a packet of coffee represented the core values ​​of the Western world .

The corrupt system survived the Romanian Revolution in 1989 , the collapse of communism, and was able to regain a foothold in the market economy. The old cadres of the party or the secret police reorganized themselves within the political party spectrum. In the democratic multi-party system, mafia behavior persisted. The exploitation of networked relationships and bickering shapes politics, whose leaders often see them as a quick means of enrichment.

In September 2002, the National Anti-Corruption Authority ( Romanian Direcția Națională Anticorupție (DNA) , until March 2006 Romanian National Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office Parchetul Național Anticorupție ) was established as an independent authority to fight corruption. The anti-corruption authority, together with the establishment of the National Integrity Agency, was one of the reforms that were carried out with a view to Romania 's accession to the EU . There were violent political disputes regarding the legal basis. By 2012, around 5,000 people had to answer before courts after DNA investigations.

After joining the European Union

Cautious optimism immediately after accession

Even before Romania's accession in 2007, the European Commission noted in 2006 that “the outstanding issues relating to the accountability and efficiency of the judiciary and law enforcement agencies [...] need to be set up for cooperation and monitoring of Romania's progress in the Fulfill certain requirements in the areas of judicial reform and the fight against corruption ”. The Commission called for the "consolidation of progress already made in conducting professional and impartial investigations into suspected corruption at the highest level" and for "further measures to be taken to prevent and combat corruption, particularly in local governments."

In 2008 the Commission assessed Romania's progress as "cautiously positive". There had also been progress in the fight against high-level corruption. The DNA has initiated numerous proceedings against members of the government and members of parliament. However, one now has to observe whether these cases actually lead to convictions. Overall, however, the Commission described the progress made in Romania as fragile, criticizing Parliament's role in blocking the prosecution of corruption allegations against MEPs. Because of corruption and organized crime, the Brussels Commission blocked Romania EU funds amounting to millions.

Recognizing the massive corruption problem

The 2009 EU progress report on corruption and judicial reform stated: “It is imperative that the executive and legislators agree on an amendment to the Constitutional Court Act, which lifts the suspension of proceedings in the event of constitutional complaints by the accused. Legal excesses should also be set in those cases in which an alleged illegality of measures is alleged, which also leads to the suspension of the proceedings. These problems lead to unacceptable delays and should be addressed either in the forthcoming deliberations on procedural law or by changing the relevant implementing rules. ”On high-level corruption, it was noted that“ in the case of requests to open preliminary investigations against former ministers ”“ the Romanian Parliament would proceed neither uniformly nor swiftly ”. In the case of corruption at the local level, "a lack of initiative in the detection of corruption cases was also evident in the local control bodies of the health and school authorities as well as in the tax offices and other internal control bodies of public institutions."

In 2010, the EU Commission noted stagnation and regression in the reform process and spoke of “major deficits” in the assessment. Romania does not show enough political will to support the reform process; more commitment in the fight against corruption is necessary, there are "serious shortcomings" in the reform of the police and the judiciary. The new ANI law on asset control of dignitaries does not meet the essential requirements of the EU. Although the country has made progress in civil and criminal law, there is generally a lack of political will to support the reform process. The main weaknesses cited are a lack of efficiency in the legal field and the lack of continuity in the case law. In order to advance the reform of the legal system, close and constructive cooperation between the various political and legal actors is necessary. A Commission spokesperson was unable to say when the reform process for Romania will be completed. There would be no time limit. The only thing that can be said is that the country still needs the support of the Commission. It is also not the time (mid-2010) to consider sanctions or to stop EU support funds.

In 2011 the Commission renewed its criticism of Romania; it has still not brought the judicial system and the fight against corruption up to EU level. Further efforts were needed in the fight against corruption. Several important court cases for high-level corruption had been dragging on for years and had made no further progress during the reporting period. These procedures urgently need to be accelerated so that they do not have to be discontinued due to the statute of limitations. Romania's accession to the Schengen border -free zone , originally planned for March 2011, has been suspended for the time being due to the corruption problem.

State crisis in Romania in 2012 and partially successful fight against corruption

In 2012, in the wake of the state crisis in Romania , the Commission expressed its “deep concern” about political developments in Romania. The country has made progress over the past five years and many framework conditions for modernizing the judicial system and fighting corruption are in place. But there is a lack of implementation; Even five years after joining the EU, the rule of law and independent judiciary in Romania are still not at European standards. The Commission also questioned the irreversibility and durability of the previous reforms and threatened Brussels to “tighten the supervision” of the country.

Furthermore, the European Commission suspended the payment of subsidies for transport, regional development and competitiveness for the time being, because the government in Bucharest refused to implement the agreed anti-corruption laws within the set deadlines. The money could only flow again as soon as “financial improvements” in these three areas could be observed in Romania. In the process, the country is given two months to pass the laws. If Romania accepts the corrections, then the whereabouts of 500 million euros must be declared, which until October 2012 had not arrived in the projects planned by the EU. On November 16, 2014, Klaus Johannis won the runoff election for President of Romania . During the election campaign, he announced that if he were elected he would vigorously fight corruption in Romania. A week after this election, at the instigation of the anti-corruption agency DNA, a public prosecutor named Alina Bica was arrested, who had been appointed chief investigator of DIICOT (Romania's highest authority for the fight against organized crime and terrorism) by the then Prime Minister Victor Ponta since spring 2013. The arrest of ex-minister Elena Udrea in February 2015 in the course of the so-called “Microsoft affair” was also attributed “high symbolic value”. In 2014, the number of convictions for corruption reached a previous record with 1051 cases. The 2015 balance sheet amounted to 1,250 cases brought to court.

At the beginning of 2017, rumors grew that the newly elected Grindeanu cabinet would adopt an ordinance granting an amnesty for corruption cases. The law passed on January 31, 2017 exempted abuse of office and the taking of advantages, provided that the amount involved was less than the equivalent of 45,000 euros. It also provided for numerous pardons for politicians previously accused of corruption. The chairman of the Partidul Social Democrat (PSD) Liviu Dragnea , who had already been found guilty of electoral fraud, would have benefited from this . With such a criminal record, the office of Prime Minister is legally barred.

This was followed by nationwide protests in Romania . With chants like “In jail, not in power!” The protest movement reached its peak so far, when around half a million people - despite the revocation of the regulations - expressed dissatisfaction with the political class on the forecourt of the government headquarters in Bucharest on February 5th Romania, which they considered out of date. There were rallies in at least 20 other cities, each with thousands or tens of thousands of demonstrators.

Removal of Laura Codruta Kövesi 2018

In July 2018, Romania's President Klaus Johannis was forced to dismiss Laura Codruta Kovesi , head of the public prosecutor's anti-corruption unit (Direcția Națională Anticorupție; DNA), against his will under pressure from the government . Johannis suffered a bitter defeat after a ruling by the Constitutional Court, which said that the head of state must not oppose the government's proposal on this personnel issue. A member of the government of Viorica Dăncilă , Justice Minister Tudorel Toader, had requested the removal of DNA boss Kövesi several months earlier. The driving force behind it was the head of the ruling PSD party, Liviu Dragnea , who could not become prime minister because he has a criminal record. Kövesis supporters assume that the action had to do with Kövesis corruption investigations against members of the social leadership. Under Kövesi, Romania made progress in the fight against corruption and made the extent of corruption transparent.

In mid-February 2019, the newly established Secția de investigare a infracțiunilor din Justiție (PICCJ) special department initiated proceedings against Laura Kövesi for “criminal offenses in the judicial system”. Kövesi is considered a candidate for the European Public Prosecutor's Office . The chairman of the Committee for the Affairs of the European Union of the German Bundestag , Gunther Krichbaum (CDU), sees a “politically motivated” action against Kövesi.

In 2019, the European Commission identified “serious grievances” in its report and expressed its “great concern” about the setbacks in the rule of law reform in the country, which had fallen short of what was at the time a prerequisite for joining the EU. "Developments in the first few months of 2019 were of great concern," said the report, which promised punitive measures for Romania if it fails to step up its efforts to ensure judicial independence and the fight against corruption.

distribution

In particular, the areas of public administration such as customs, police and taxes are particularly affected by corruption. According to Transparency International, doctors, police officers and politicians are among the most corrupt professions in Romania.

Corruption naturally takes place in secret; Data from police crime statistics about the reporting of criminal offenses do not seem meaningful. On the one hand, only those cases appear there that have actually been reported, on the other hand, the police themselves are very susceptible to bribery.

The following subsections are arranged alphabetically:

Education

In education, the purchase of diplomas, plagiarism and corruption of teachers are the order of the day.For example, the private University Spiru Haret in Bucharest is considered a cadre of the country's post-communist power elite, a hub of corrupt networks and a diploma factory with thousands of degrees without real ones Exams were awarded. Undercover investigators disguised as students uncovered several facts in 2015 at the Eftimie Murgu University in Reșița , in which teaching staff had sold master’s degrees and dissertations at prices between 150 and 300 euros. Sexual favors are also said to have led to deals.

A 2007 study by UNESCO found that systemic corruption in Romania's education system is due to a combination of internal and external factors. Internal factors identified were management monopoly and discretion, low salaries and lack of incentives for high quality teaching, lack of professional standards, poor management capacity, lack of auditing and poor public information. External factors identified were the lack of access to information, the lack of external auditing and inadequate judicial capacity, poor general administrative practice with fragile budgets and low wages.

At the Western University of Timişoara (Romanian: Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara ), with 25,000 students one of the largest universities in Romania, a reform group consisting of around 100 university employees was formed in 2007 around the head of the central library, Vasile Docea, who oppose “corrupt machinations” as pronounced "sale of licensed, final or diploma theses" at the university. Some senior professors such as Ion Biris, Dean of the Faculty of Political and Communication Sciences, criticized Docea heavily: “Look at this newspaper article that appeared in Craiova. This Mr. Docea accuses our rector of heading a mafia clan. Is our university a mafia clan? You have to prove that first. And so far there is a lack of evidence. "Vasile Docea was not surprised by the outcry from the college:" There are people who have, for example, taken doctorates at an academy of the Communist Party. Everyone knows that the Communist Party academy was a political academy, not a scientific one. ”These people in turn led doctorates and acted as doctoral supervisors. Such doctorates obtained at the "Academy of Communists" are not proof of academic ability, but evidence of communist loyalty to the Communist Party.

In 2006 in Bucharest, reform-oriented university teachers and lecturers from all over the country formed the coalition for pure universities (Romanian: Coaliția pentru Universități Curate ). This coalition brought together all those involved in higher education such as representatives of students, trade unions and professional associations, and academic monitoring organizations. The group subsequently carried out a two-year academic study of Romanian state universities with the aim of strengthening ethical integrity in the face of the general bad practices. To investigate leadership practices at 42 universities, SAR developed a detailed catalog of questions and evaluated the answers received. A summary of the 2009 results is shown in the following table:

Street protest on the Victor Pontas plagiarism scandal in Bucharest, July 2012
category Number of universities with an above-average rating Number of universities with below average rating
Transparency and responsiveness 24 18th
Academic Integrity 20th 22nd
Responsible university management 18th 24
Financial management 25th 15th

When examining academic integrity, the reviewers found, among other things, that universities do not have the necessary control mechanisms to detect plagiarism, although this practice is a common phenomenon among Romanian students and lecturers. Prominent examples of this are the former Minister of Health Mircea Beuran, the former Minister of Education Ioan Mang , two candidates for the office of Minister of Education, and Prime Minister Victor Ponta . In 70 percent of the universities, the reviewers found a complete lack of enforcement of basic rules in cases of plagiarism.

A study commissioned by the Soros Foundation found that 22 percent of the students surveyed were asked by their professors for a "favor". 13 percent of students gave gifts to their teachers. According to the 130-page "Textbook on Lubricating", published in 2007 by the organization "Nu da spaga" in collaboration with the Association of Romanian Investigative Journalists, five exams should be taken at the Victor Babes Medical and Pharmaceutical University in Timișoara for $ 1,000. Teachers' hand money to the Romanian Teaching Inspectorate for a job in the city instead of in the country is said to be around $ 1,000.

According to Nicolae Ţăran (Professor of Economics at the Western University of Timisoara), universities and chairs in the country are not financed according to the quality of their research and teaching, but solely based on the number of their students. In addition, the number of Romanian universities, which are often considered prestige projects for local politicians, multiplied between 1990 and 2015. Their large number makes sustainable quality management difficult and encourages corruption.

Healthcare

In 2010, Romania spent less than any other country in the EU on health, with just 3.7 percent of its gross domestic product . The limited financial resources available have far-reaching consequences: insufficient technical equipment in hospitals and outdated buildings, the majority of hospitals are more than 50 years old.

A World Bank study conducted in 2005 for the Romanian Ministry of Health concluded that “informal payments” in the Romanian health system amounted to $ 360 million per year. If a patient's health conditions require hospitalization, a bribe of three quarters of a family's monthly income is usually due, according to the study. Some doctors said that the culture of bribery has become so entrenched in people's minds that if they refuse to accept a bribe, some patients feel confused and see it as a sign that their disease is incurable. Doctors and patients said bribery followed a number of unwritten rules. The amount of the bribe is determined by the treatment, ranging from $ 127 for a straightforward appendix removal to more than $ 6,370 for brain surgery. The “proposed prices” of the bribe would be passed on by word of mouth, but also posted on blogs and websites. According to the 2007 “Textbook on Lubricating”, patients in Romanian hospitals had to pay bribes in order to receive adequate treatment. Pensioners, who are among the poorest in Romania, had to pay 50 to 100 dollars (36 to 72 euros) for an operation. However, this “low” bribery tariff only applied to retirees. A femoral neck operation would have cost about $ 600 for a younger person; half for the attending physician, the other half would have been divided among the nursing staff. A birth in a "cheaper" hospital was estimated at $ 150, in "better" hospitals with $ 300 to $ 400, but a birth in a private hospital cost $ 2,000 and more.

Vasile Astărăstoae, biomedical ethicist and president of the 47,000 member Romanian Medical Association, described in 2012 the “pitifully low average monthly wages of about $ 510 for doctors” as the reason for accepting bribes. In the same year Astărăstoae put the monthly average salary of a doctor in Romania at “approx. 250 euro". Patients didn't want a doctor who was distracted from worrying about how to feed his children or pay the rent. So there is a silent agreement between the doctor and the patient to pay a bribe. Unlike in many western countries, where doctors are respected and amply rewarded for years of hard work, the medical profession in Romania was vilified under the communist regime, while workers in the factories were named heroes of the country.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics , “out-of-pocket payments” for costs not covered by the Romanian National Health Insurance account for 30 percent of total health expenditure. Overall, Romania is at the top of the OECD countries in terms of the amount of additional payments . 1605 Romanian doctors had already left the country by September 2012 because of the maladministration in the health system, a total of around 10,000 trained doctors left the country since joining the EU from 2007 to 2012.

Local public transport

In 2012, the public prosecutor's office investigated more than 200 employees of the Căile Ferate Române state railway for alleged evasion of fines and proceeds from subsequent ticket sales to fare dodgers. 50 people were taken into custody, including not only conductors but also employees from the Ministry of Transport. The damage was estimated at 30 to 40 million euros annually.

politics

  • Adrian Năstase, former Prime Minister

  • László Borbély, former Minister of the Environment

  • Teodor Baconschi, former Foreign Minister

  • Adrian Severin, former MEP

  • Elena Udrea, former Minister for Tourism and Regional Development

There are corrupt politicians in all Romanian parties, but in the three-party alliance of the Social Liberal Union (USL) made up of Partidul Social Democrat (PSD), Partidul National Liberal (PNL) and Partidul Conservator (PC), the number is serious Falls particularly high. The PSD acts, among other things, as a collecting tank for the former Securitate and party elite under Ceaușescu and is considered in Romania to be the symbol of a corrupt oligarchy. By March 2015, more than 30 ministers from various governments had been investigated.

Ovidiu Pecican , publicist and historian from the University of Cluj , remarked: "What we are currently witnessing is a battle between two cliques, both of which have no legitimacy and which are now fighting to the last for their influence and their existence". Prime Minister Victor Ponta "and Co. are attacking the rule of law in a hurry and very hard", the (former) President Traian Băsescu "and his people have hollowed it out with more moderate methods for a long time."

Former PSD and government head Adrian Năstase is considered the symbol of a corrupt politician in Romania. On June 20, 2012, he was sentenced in the last instance to two years in prison for illegally financing election campaigns and political parties. To avoid imprisonment, Nastase staged a suicide attempt, which only gave him a few days and did not prevent him from entering prison.

Examples of political corruption

Two judges are said to have accepted jewelry, travel and the free use of an apartment in Paris in order to influence judgments favorably for the defendants. Șerban Mihăilescu of the Social Democrats secretly obtained eleven hunting weapons for a government representative in order to keep his job on a parliamentary committee. A representative of the Liberal Democratic Party had a mansion built for falsifying data in the Ministry of Economic Affairs; Election campaigns are alleged to have been illegally sponsored.

Anti-corruption investigators arrested Vasile Avram , head of the referees department of the Romanian football association Federaänia Română de Fotbal , and a businessman close to FCM Târgu Mureş . On October 18, 2011, the State Secretary in the Ministry of Labor was arrested in the act by anti-corruption officials while accepting bribes. The former head of the Office for Consumer Protection in Brașov , Ionel Spătaru, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment in the first instance at the end of 2011 for accepting around 70,000 euros in bribes. In return, he should exercise his influence and reopen a wholesale market . One assistant received a four-year suspended sentence. Spătaru said the amount of money was a donation to the Democratic Liberal Party.

On November 22, 2011, the DNA prosecutors requested the immunity of Corneliu Bîrsan , judge at the European Court of Human Rights , to be waived on allegations of corruption. Sorin Apostu, former PDL mayor in Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania, nicknamed "Fifty-Fifty", was taken into custody in December 2011 for serious corruption. On March 23, 2012, the Romanian public prosecutor's office arranged for an international arrest warrant to be issued for Mihail Boldea , a member of the Chamber of Deputies who was suspected of corruption and who had fled the country. Boldea presented himself in Kenya. On April 5, 2012, Environment Minister László Borbély from the UDMR declared his resignation over allegations of corruption.

After the liver sausage scandal , in which the ex-minister of finance and agriculture Decebal Traian Remeș had received "15,000 euros, baskets of liver sausage and a barrel of schnapps" in the course of a tender for a major construction contract, he was sentenced to three years in prison in February 2012 . The former Agriculture Minister Ioan Avram Mureșan , who was also involved and was sentenced to three years in prison at the time, was sentenced on May 29, 2012 to a seven-year prison term for embezzlement and forgery of documents.

In June, the Supreme Court of Cassation sentenced PSD Senator Cătălin Voicu (nicknamed the “Stripper Senator”) to five years imprisonment for major corruption and forgery of documents. The anti-corruption prosecutors charged him with having received a total of 260,000 euros from the building contractor Costel Căşuneanu in 2009 in order to obtain a favorable judgment for one of his trading companies from the Chief Justice Florin Costiniu . In August 2009 Voicu acted in the same way in favor of the Bucharest real estate entrepreneur Marius Locic , who was supposed to pay 119,000 lei (about 28,000 euros) for which Voicu wanted to put criminal investigations against the entrepreneur out of the world. In the course of the scandal, mafia-like structures in the judiciary were uncovered. In the same trial, entrepreneurs Căşuneanu and Locic were sentenced to three and four years' imprisonment, respectively. Judge Florin Costiniu was sentenced to three years suspended prison sentence in 2011. MEP Adrian Severin , who had been suspected of corruption a year earlier , was again targeted by the anti-corruption authority in July 2012. He is said to have received money from EU funds from 2007 to 2010 with the falsified receipts. He had issued the invoices for invented consulting services and then collected around 436,000 euros.

The DNA is investigating Sorin Blejnar, head of the financial administration ANAF ( Agenția Națională de Administrare Fiscală ), who was deposed in April , for widespread tax fraud. Blejnar is said to have supported a fraud ring, which is said to have been headed by his former cabinet chief Codruț Marta . In particular, when trading 33,000 tons of incorrectly declared petroleum products, the state is said to have suffered damage of 15 million euros. 15 other people are said to be involved in the affair, including the former head of the customs administration, Viorel Comăniţă. Several department heads of the ANAF were already in the sights of the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Terrorism (Romanian Direcția de Investigare a Infracțiunilor de Criminalitate Organizată și Terorism , DIICOT). On July 24, 2012, the special prosecutors took action against a fraudulent group alleged to have defrauded the Romanian state with illegal sales tax refunds between 2010 and 2012 by 40 million euros annually. Senator Cezar Măgăreanu, among others, is involved in the affair.

Former Romanian Minister of Tourism and Regional Development Elena Udrea was charged with money laundering in January 2015. She is said to have been involved in concealing the whereabouts of nine million euros that her ex-husband, the businessman Dorin Cocos, who is in custody, is said to have received in the course of a transaction with Microsoft . The software company had previously sold material for equipping schools to the Romanian state. According to the investigators, bribes of around 60 million euros should have flowed to members of the government. In addition to Cocos, another nine ex-ministers are in the sights of the DNA investigators. Udrea was remanded in custody in February 2015.

Police and customs

In 2010, Romanian customs officers and the local head of office hit the headlines after the Australian hard rock band AC / DC for their 50-car tour column despite valid vignettes for road use when leaving the western Romanian border crossing in Nadlac on the Hungarian border Euro per car, a total of 2500 Euro, had to pay for an alleged tax sticker. Allegedly, the band would not have paid the tolls and would have to pay them when crossing the border. The band had complained in writing to the Romanian Motorway and Road Authority (CNADNR) that they had not received a receipt. After an internal investigation, the local chief officer was demoted and four officers involved in the case were dismissed. The authority took the incident as an opportunity to set up a service hotline that can be used to report incidents at the border, whereupon a control team should appear within 30 minutes. In 2010 a total of 248 border and customs officers were arrested; some were accused of collecting up to 5,800 euros in a single shift.

In 2011, the police arrested ten border police officers and nine customs officers who were working on the south-western Romanian border with Serbia and who were accused of corruption. Around 160 officers had previously been arrested at border crossings with Serbia and Ukraine . In many cases they were accused of stolen goods and cigarette smuggling. The director of the Romanian customs authority Radu Traian Marginean was also dismissed by the then Prime Minister Emil Boc . Prosecutors accused Marginean of being involved in a corruption affair involving the customs chief at a border crossing with Ukraine. The officer is said to have paid a total of 430,000 euros in bribes in order to get and keep her office as head of customs.

By 2011 Romania had invested more than one billion euros in the development of high-tech border surveillance, among other things for guarding the EU's external borders. In 2013, the French ambassador to Romania, Philippe Gustin , pointed out that “the best technology” is of no use as long as border controls can be easily overcome “with a banknote in your passport”.

Interior Minister Traian Igaș (PD-L) announced in 2011 that more than 30,000 officials in the area of ​​the Romanian Interior Ministry, mainly police officers, had received their jobs “through relations”. An internal investigation of the recruitment policy of the past 13 years showed that, in addition to the 29,000 graduates of police schools within the ministry, 63,500 people were recruited "from outside" and thus had no relevant training or experience. He announced the dismissal of around 10,000 officials, but the matter remains "a serious problem [...] because, according to all evaluation criteria, the number of those who are poorly prepared is higher than 10,000," said Igas.

According to the “Textbook on Lubricating”, in 2007, if the speed was exceeded or drunk driving, generally 10 to 50 euros of hush money were due for law enforcement officers; for a traffic accident under the influence of alcohol with no injuries around 250 dollars.

Judiciary

The anti-corruption organization “Alliance for a Clean Romania” complained that the Bucharest City Hall had to pay around 200 million euros to the businessman Costica Costanda in a lawsuit over questionable land rights. He had sued the town hall for payment of the sum after he had acquired almost 33,000 square meters of land in a prime location through a land swap in the mid-2000s, which he could not use as building land in retrospect.

The judge, Evelina Oprina, who awarded Costanda the amount of the damage, still had close business contacts in 2014 with one of Costanda's lawyers, Traian Briciu. Briciu not only acted as a lawyer for the Impact Developer & Contractor Development Company, whose majority shareholder Gheorghe Iaciu had come under suspicion of money laundering due to the joint establishment of letterbox companies with the major British bank HSBC. Together with Briciu, who was also head of the institute for young lawyers in the country (INPPA), judge Oprina wrote an anthology on Romanian law. In addition, the magazine for foreclosure Revista romana de executare silita , of which Oprina is editor-in-chief, organized a conference on foreclosure on September 20, 2014 - with Briciu as editor and Claudiu Constantin Dinu as additional speakers. The latter was the official advisor to the former Romanian President Traian Basescu. Judge Oprina, through the magazine she runs, not only organized the conference at which Briciu and the presidential adviser presented; the conference continued to market books for package prices of around 400 lei (around 100 euros), from which Oprina contributed as an author.

A spokesman for the former Romanian president said there was "no conflict of interest between the status of the presidential advisor and the conferences he attends". The procedure is "in accordance with the applicable laws".

economy

Foreign direct investment in Romania (in billion euros)

In addition to administrative weaknesses and problems with obtaining EU funding, corruption hinders economic growth in Romania. In 2013, the country was ranked 59th on the Index of Economic Freedom under the aspect of economic freedom (65.1 points), behind Albania and ahead of Bulgaria . The publishing Heritage Foundation ruled that, exacerbated by a relatively inefficient judiciary, perceived corruption undermined the foundations of economic freedom and the prospects for dynamic and sustainable economic expansion.

In 2012, many German investors in Romania were unsettled, not ultimately because of the domestic political turmoil. The country is currently facing the difficult task of regaining trust that has been politically and economically lost.

In 2011, Steven van Groningen, President and CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Romania , stated that the business environment in Romania was “too corrupt”, which would hinder investment and damage the country's international reputation.

US investors also avoided Romania in 2011 because of the widespread corruption in the country. Many American companies that are already present in Romania or are planning to enter the market were outraged that Romanian officials would repeatedly demand bribes from them.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a reception by Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta at the Federal Chancellery in Berlin in June 2013: "The rule of law, the reliability of legal regulations, the fight against corruption and the highest degree of transparency are particularly important for the German economy." is a prerequisite for further investments by German companies in Romania.

Foreign direct investment for 2012 was 1.27 billion euros at the end of October.

rating

Protest in Bucharest on January 15, 2012, “Stop corupţiei!”, German  stop corruption!

“Corruption has long been a part of Romanian society. That is sad, but it is still the reality, ”said Romanian President Klaus Johannis on November 18, 2016.

The Nobel Prize laureate Herta Müller said that “fraud” is “a matter of course” in Romanian politics.

The Secretary General of the Authority for Integrity (ANI) Horia Georgescu said that local politics is the most vulnerable area to potential conflicts of interest and incompatibilities in Romania: “There are hundreds of cases where county councils participate in the preparation and approval of local budgets and then in apparently correct tenders in which the money is actually diverted in favor of companies that belong to the politicians or their families. ”Although the legislation postulates an incompatibility between the status of politician and business relationships with one's own institution, the penalties are low and the procedure for their punishment is low downright bureaucratic. So it is quite possible that a member of the district council is running for another mandate while the proceedings against him in the judiciary are disproportionately delayed despite the conflicts of interest. A study by the ANI showed that a quarter of Romanian local politicians have meanwhile concluded contracts as entrepreneurs with the district councils of which they are also members.

The Romanian-German writer and director of the Berlin House of Literature, Ernest Wichner, feared that the “arbitrariness, indifference to democracy and corruption that emerged with Prime Minister Victor Ponta” was “not only a feature of the supposed elite, but also the tip of a social iceberg”. This is not a new phenomenon, because Romanian society was deeply influenced by it during the brief democratic phase in the 1920s and 1930s. “There is and was no functioning democratic game of forces. Every time […] a party came to power through elections or a constructive vote of no confidence, or whatever, it was ruled through. […] Their own followers were then brought to power up to the counties and districts, and not to change anything politically, to implement a new, different, alternative political program, but to benefit their own clientele participate, and unfortunately that has remained with the fall of Ceaușescu and until today in Romania. ”The political scientist Stelian Tănase stated:“ The state is seen as spoil by politics. Whoever has power also has access to the state budget. He can then squander that with his clientele. That is the logic by which Romanian politics works. It is a corrupt world where it is only a question of securing access to public funds. "

Ion M. Ionita wrote in the daily Adevărul in mid-2010: “If you can steal legal papers in Romania, then it is difficult to identify corruption.” [...] “Where is it really, Romania's corruption? It is inherent in the nature of our corruption itself. Because in the last twenty years we have developed a system that actually legalizes corruption! "

Judicial expert Laura Ștefan from the Expert Forum said, referring to the anti-corruption struggle in the country, that the imprisonment of Adrian Năstase was unacceptable to Ponta's party friends. “It is the first time in Romania that such a high-ranking politician is held accountable for his actions. Until now, such leaders have always been above the law. Nobody had the right to ask her: Why did you steal, why did you abuse your power? Now this idea has been shaken. "Suddenly," other greats from the guild of kleptocrats began to tremble. "The journalist Ioana Ene described the refusal of the parliamentary majority in July 2012 to suspend 20 parliamentarians who had already been accused and to exclude legally convicted representatives from parliament , as the "revolution of those at risk of detention". It began immediately after the alarm signal that triggered the condemnation of Năstase and will not end until the reform of the judiciary is either reversed or finally succeeded. Another interpretation of the situation on hotnews.ro was: “Revolution of the bush thieves”.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ In October 1989 Romanian customs officers beat up two dozen Poles on their way back from Istanbul to such an extent that many injured people in Hungary had to seek medical treatment. (→ online )
  2. ↑ At the coalition involved organizations were Societatea Academica din România (SAR), Alianţei Naţioanele a Organizaţiilor Studeneţeşti din România (ANOSR) Grupul pentru Reforma Universitara (GRU) Asociatia pentru educatie si Cercetare EduCer din România (EduCer), Ad Astra , Forumul Academic Român (FAR), Alma Mater . (→ online )
  3. ↑ For comparison: Health expenditure in Germany in 2010 was 11.6 percent. (→ online )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c dradio.de , Deutschlandradio Kultur, Karla Engelhard: Everyone smears - Corruption is part of everyday life in Romania, March 1, 2012, accessed on July 24, 2012
  2. ↑ sevenbuerger.de , Siebenbürgische Zeitung, Klaus Dieter Untch: Vicious circle of corruption in everyday life in Romania , May 26, 2011, accessed on July 24, 2012
  3. ↑ a b c Pester Lloyd : Personnel & Fate Question, November 5, 2012.
  4. ↑ standard.at , Der Standard : Nationalsport Korruption , July 15, 2009
  5. ↑ Emme Alide: Romania on the way to the European Union - study on the fulfillment of the economic criteria of the Copenhagen decision , GRIN Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-638-41951-7 , p. 40.
  6. ↑ a b zdf.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , ZDF : "We thought we would live like in the West" , July 29, 2004, accessed on July 30, 2012@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.heute.de  
  7. ↑ uzh.ch  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , University of Zurich , Rada Mihalcea: Corpus Analysis - Baksheesh in Romanian. Corruption is also a science , July 20, 2012, accessed on August 2, 2012@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.limbro.uzh.ch  
  8. ↑ Corruption Perceptions Index 2018, Romania.
  9. ↑ a b c dradio.de , Deutschlandfunk , Christoph Schmitz: Korrupt und little democratic , July 18, 2012, accessed on July 24, 2012
  10. ↑ a b c ricogrimm.de (PDF; 1.2 MB), Rico Grimm: Corruption - research into causes in the mirror of Romania and Slovenia
  11. ↑ a b Die Zeit , Marius Draghici: Romania - A Repetitive History, June 10, 2004, accessed on July 24, 2012.
  12. ↑ Tina Olteanu: Corruption in Romania a legacy of state socialism? In: Dieter Segert (ed.): Post-Socialism. Legacy of State Socialism and New Capitalisms , Braumüller, Vienna 2000, pp. 65–85.
  13. ↑ Der Spiegel: Die san nur poor Würschtl, 49/1989, December 4, 1989.
  14. ↑ Der Spiegel: Land of the Living Dead. The 23 million Romanians suffer from the unbroken terror of their conducator Ceaușescu. 47/1989, November 20, 1989.
  15. ↑ Die Welt, Peter Beddies: Interview with Christian Mungiu. “We have been underestimated”, May 29, 2007.
  16. ↑ Hanswilhelm Haefs: The 2. Handbook of useless knowledge, BoD - Books on Demand, 2002, ISBN 3-8311-3754-4 , p. 236, here p. 191 (→  online )
  17. ↑ Steven W. Sowards: Modern History of the Balkans: The Balkans in the Age of Nationalism, BoD - Books on Demand, 2004, ISBN 3-8334-0977-0 , p. 596, here p. 495 (→  online )
  18. ↑ news.google.com , The Gazette (Montreal) , Jonathan Lynn: Cigarettes good as gold in Romania, December 1, 1984, in English.
  19. ^ The Wall Street Journal : In Romania, Smoking A Kent Cigarette Is Like Burning Money and In Romania, Kent Cigarettes are Very Useful As A Bartering Medium, March 1, 1986, in English.
  20. ↑ edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de (PDF; 1.9 MB), Georgeta Daniela Oancea: Myths and the past. Romania after the reunification. Munich, 2005.
  21. ↑ ec.europa.eu ( Memento of the original from July 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 26 kB), Commission decision of 13 / XII / 2006 on the establishment of a procedure for cooperation and review of Romania's progress in meeting certain requirements in the areas of judicial reform and the fight against corruption @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / ec.europa.eu
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  25. ↑ rumaenien.ahk.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : The latest progress report by the EU Commission states stagnation and regression in the case of Romania , July 20, 2010@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / rumaenien.ahk.de  
  26. ↑ euractiv.de , EurActiv: Deficiencies in judicial reform and the fight against corruption , July 22, 2011
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