The fight against corruption

Although accused in the past of inertia and bias for the benefit of politicians and business people, the Romanian judiciary has been very active recently. Not a day goes by that the media does not report on another action against corruption, a scourge of present-day society, as repeatedly stressed in Brussels.

Roxana Vasile, 23.05.2014, 13:46

Although accused in the past of inertia and bias for the benefit of politicians and business people, the Romanian judiciary has been very active recently. Not a day goes by that the media does not report on another action against corruption, a scourge of present-day society, as repeatedly stressed in Brussels.

Dan Adamescu, the second richest man in Romania with an estimated wealth of 1 billion euros, has come under scrutiny from both prosecutors and the media. His name appears in cases involving four judges who have been taken in temporary custody this week for taking 5,000 to 15,000 euros in bribes. Adamescu is now being prosecuted for bribing the judges in exchange for a rule in his favour. As intermediaries, he used his own son, Bogdan, and a young lawyer, George Dumitru, who killed himself early this week, by throwing himself in front of an incoming train at a Bucharest metro station, right after he was heard by the National Anticorruption Directorate and presented by prosecutors with a bank statement showing the exact amount he had received to bribe the judges.

Physicians too are these days being heard by prosecutors. After a case in which some physicians working for a public hospital in Bucharest were accused of performing illegal plastic surgery, both public and legal attention is now focused on nine people arrested for involvement in a case of prescriptions fraud. Three doctors from a renowned oncology hospital, two pharmacy owners and four representatives of pharmaceutical companies have been taken in temporary custody for 30 days, accused of having drawn up over one thousand forged prescriptions for people suffering from cancer, but who have never benefited from the prescribed treatment. The drugs thus prescribed were fraudulently discounted from the Insurance House. The damage stands at over 8 million lei, the equivalent of some 1.8 million euros.

The Romanian government has hailed the efforts made to fight corruption in the justice and healthcare systems, all the more so as the latter is faced with serious financial problems and lack of funding. Also, a study shows that the number of the acts of corruption reported by citizens in relation to the Interior Ministry staff has also increased considerably.