National anticorruption strategy, until 2015

Romania has from now on a national anticorruption strategy.

The government has adopted Thursday the strategy until 2015 and one of the most important provisions of this document refers to elaborating its own anticorruption plans for every institution of the state, not just for the ones with special treatment.

The main characteristics of the new anticorruption strategy are the integrated and multidisciplinary character and the generality.

The Justice Minister, Cătălin Predoiu, considers that the new document represents a step forward, as we pass from the simple detection and punishment of corruption to preventing and educating the employees from public institutions.

Cătălin Predoiu sustains that the new anticorruption strategy vises all institutions of state, local authorities, business environment, civil society and will be followed by a series of codes of ethics and codes of deontology.

“Practically, every public institution, every institution which functions with public money, should have to include within its own intern regulations of functioning either ethical codes, or deontological codes, either mechanisms of consulting among the heads of the institutions at various levels and among its employees, internal debates, that is an entire process of being aware of the corruption problem and fixing some internal objectives specific to any institution”, declared Cătălin Predoiu.

The strategy will determine also a series of legislative changes

According to the Minister of Justice, the new anticorruption strategy will determine also a series of legislative changes.

Cătălin Predoiu added that the new strategy also vises the simplification of procedures regarding the parliamentary immunity raising.

“The simplification regarding the raising of parliamentary immunity is such an objective, it imposes to the parliamentarian and I’m convinced that, after this declaration we foresee, the Parliament will also pass to its simplification through its own regulations.”

“Surely, the simplification supposes also acceleration, but I believe that this will have to be established within the Parliament. As minister, the only thing I can do is to technically support such a process, I would not want to contrive the solutions that remain within the sovereign power of Parliament”, declared the Minister of Justice.

Cătălin Predoiu specified that, apart from the executive, it is preferable that also Parliament assumes these anticorruption objectives, which is also recommended by the cooperation and verifying mechanism within the European Council.

“That is why, at coalition level, the government will raise through the Prime-Minister the adoption problem of a politics declaration by the Parliament through which it formally assumes the strategy objectives and also to implement them”, also stated the Minister of Justice.

Cătălin Predoiu added that the new national anticorruption strategy is the result of a long public debate, but also of the collaboration with experts from over 90 public institutions.
Tags: Romania, national anticorruption strategy, Cătălin Predoiu, Minister of Justice, government.

Translated by Alexandra-Diana Mircea
MTTLC, Bucharest University