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Romania's Attorney General, Augustin Lazar declared on Tuesday that in the future, it is necessary to avoid acts of leniency for corruption deeds that would create a sentiment of social insecurity. ''The end of 2016 marked 10 years since the implementation of the decision by which the European Commission has established the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). Romania has made major advance in achieving these goals on fighting corruption, a fact revealed in the monitoring reports, which praised the work of combating the big and small corruption. In the future, it is necessary to avoid negative evolutions that question the progress made. For instance, acts of leniency for corruption deeds that would create a sentiment of social insecurity," said Lazar, at the activity report presentation of the Public Ministry last year.
The Attorney General stated that the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) activity in 2016 was considerable, with senior officials, parliamentarians, magistrates, lawyers, judicial police officers being sent to court. "The number of cases solved in substance registered an important increase, by almost 26 percent over the previous year, as well as the number of indictments, by almost 13 percent. The cases that DNA has solved regarding corruption in the public and private domains are among the most complex cases of the Public Ministry. People prosecuted during 2016 were senior officials, parliamentarians, magistrates, lawyers, judicial police officers. We note the final conviction for corruption in the case of numerous parliamentarians, magistrates, lawyers and generals of military structures. The Directorate has preserved and managed to recover for the Romanian state large sums of money," Lazar specified.
The Attorney General added that a maximum of indictments was accomplished in 2016 (395 cases), but most individual defendants were sent to court for corruption in 2015. The number of defendants in custody, in 2016, was lower, the provisional detention representing an exceptional measure. The cases have targeted corruption in the health, education, public administration systems, the fictitious placement of staff in companies and public institutions, nepotism, clientelism and patronage. Augustin Lazar further said that DIICOT has also had good results in 2016, pointing out an increase in indictments by 28.46 percent over the previous year, even if the number of cases solved in substance fell. In addition, the biggest cocaine seizure on Romanian territory was operated .
Prosecutors from all over the country participated, during 2016, in about half a million Court sittings, carried out in about 300,000 cases, and examined, in view of exercising the appeal procedure, about 280,000 criminal judgments. In 2016, 346 cases on conflicts of interest were solved (versus 237 in 2015), out of which 52 with indictments (as compared to 45 in 2015), with 58 individual defendants. In the area of tax evasion, the number of individuals defendants prosecuted increased as compared to 2015, but Augustin Lazar considers this number insufficient compared to the criminal phenomenon. "The recovery of crimes' products is as important as punishing the offenders. It creates the premise for the reformation of the social evil produced by the crime, in terms of heritage. The value of precautionary measures decreased compared with 2015 when a complex fuel evasion cases was solved. It is necessary to organize a good cooperation with ANABI (National Impounded Asset Management Agency) in order to boost the recovery of crimes' products," stated Lazar.
