A senator and a
\ndeputy were in the media spotlight on Monday. A former secretary general of the
\nLiberal Democratic Party and later the co-president of the Liberal Party,
\nsenator Vasile Blaga was indicted for peddling in influence. According to
\nprosecutors, over 2011 and 2012, Blaga allegedly received from a company no
\nless than 700,000 euros to use his influence with a person holding a leadership
\nposition at two state companies. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Also on Monday, the deputies were supposed to
\nvote on the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of their colleague Eugen
\nBejinariu so that the National Anticorruption Directorate could start a
\ncriminal investigation against him. A former secretary general in the Social
\nDemocratic government in 2003 and 2004, deputy Bejinaru is accused of
\naggravated abuse of office as part of a case known as Microsoft 2, in which a
\n50% discount granted by Microsoft for IT licences in schools was pocketed by
\nthird parties. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The case, in which former ministers and Microsoft Romania directors
\nare also under investigation, caused damage of 67 million euros. Bejinariu’s
\ncolleagues in the Social Democratic Party have asked him to resign from
\nParliament, threatening to withdraw their political support, thinking no doubt
\nthat Bejinariu is a liability so close to the parliamentary elections due in
\nless than two weeks’ time. Bejinaru, has refused, saying he is innocent and
\npreferring instead to leave the Chamber of Deputies decide his fate. The vote,
\nhowever, did not take place on Monday, because of a lack of quorum. A new
\nvoting session may be held next week.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
All this goes to show that the fight
\nagainst high-level corruption continues, leading in recent years to many
\nconvictions in some very important cases. Despite these achievements, political
\ncommentators and civil society have often complained that not enough of the
\nlosses caused by corruption have been recovered and not enough of the illegally
\nobtained assets confiscated. In theory, the confiscation of illegal assets may
\ndiscourage corruption more than a prison sentence. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
According to the Justice
\nMinister Raluca Pruna, at the end of October, the state had confiscated assets
\nworth around 4 million euros. The money will go to a number of ministries and
\nnon-governmental organisations, namely 20% to healthcare, another 20% to
\neducation, 15% each to the finance, justice and interior ministries and another
\n15% to NGOs. Starting next year, the money obtained through confiscations will
\nbe channelled into social projects. As the Justice Minister Raluca Pruna put
\nit, what we, society want, is to take back the stolen money!<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Authorities in Bucharest are acting to recover the losses incurred by corruption and confiscate illegally obtained assets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":71100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[28950,31251,38616,31227,30963],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-71099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-corruption","tag-eugen-bejinariu","tag-justice-minister-raluca-pruna","tag-microsoft-2","tag-vasile-blaga"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n