New Anti-Corruption Cases in Romania
The Anti-Corruption Directorate has managed to prove it deserves credit for its work.
Florentin Căpitănescu, 08.12.2014, 13:20
Set up almost ten years ago with the aim of dealing with a highly corrupt administrative system, the Romanian Anti-Corruption Directorate has eventually reached its purpose. Previously seen as an almost ineffective institution, with huge problems in solving the very few cases of corruption revealed, over the past two – three years, the Anti-Corruption Directorate has managed to rehabilitate itself. The fact that this institution started to implement its anti-corruption plan at all levels of public administration, the victories scored in Court and the fact that it brought a former Prime Minister, the Social Democrat Adrian Nastase to justice, have restored the image of an institution capable of exposing and dealing with corrupt officials, without exception.
One such official is the head of the Buzau County Council, Cristinel Bigiu, recently placed under preventive detention for 30 days, for bribe taking. The anti-corruption prosecutors caught him in the act of receiving 50 thousand lei, that is 11 thousand euros, from a businessman, in exchange for having helped the latter sign a contract with the state, without tender. Bigiu’s god-son was also detained for complicity to bribe taking, as he was the intermediary in the transaction. However, the case of the Buzau County Council President is not the most resounding victory of the anti-corruption prosecutors. It is just another file in a long series, showing both the effectiveness of the Anti-Corruption Directorate and the scale of corruption in public institutions. As many as nine former ministers from different governments are being investigated in the so-called Microsoft case. Prosecutors say that the dozens of millions of Euro worth of damage to the state was hidden behind IT licenses for schools.
The same damage is estimated in the case involving the chief-prosecutor of Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime, Alina Bica and MP Marko Atilla. Bica was detained for having allegedly abused a previous role of state secretary with the Justice Ministry and member of a committee dealing with the restitution of land. She is said to have green lighted a payment for an overvalued plot of land on the outskirts of Bucharest. These are the kind of cases that should have been opened by anti-corruption prosecutors a long time ago. But it is never too late to bring the corrupt to justice.
