The Social Democratic Party (PSD) categorically rejects the PNL-USR attempt to "pervert" the reform of the National Integrity Agency (ANI), pledged under the NRRP, for the benefit of those who have violated the legal integrity norms, the party said in a release.
"The party of Dominic Fritz - whom the High Court handed down a definitive sanction for conflict of interest - is rewriting integrity laws to save its members from ANI investigations. The price: Romania's accession to the OECD, blown up through the total secretisation of asset and interest declarations. There are indications that the bill submitted by PNL was not even discussed with the European Commission, although it is publicly sold as a 'NRRP milestone'. This is political fraud in its purest form! Under the cover of the PNL project, actually built in an informal working group controlled by USR, amendments were submitted tailor-made for Dominic Fritz and other party members such as Timisoara's deputy mayor, Paula Romocean - both found in conflict of interest. Under the new law, Fritz would never have been 'in conflict of interest'. The law is no longer made for Romania. It is made for USR's case files," the Social Democrats claim.
According to them, the amendments "hide" the following: local elected officials get away with conflict of interest when issuing and voting administrative acts; cumulative conditions that block ANI's three-year ban; an integrity threshold of two minimum wages - a faithful copy of the "abuse threshold" that the USR called "the legalisation of theft"; checks limited to five years and the dismissal of cases that "take too long"- those who drag out procedures get away; free access to public money for NGOs belonging to the officials themselves; asset and interest declarations - secretised, anonymised, removed from citizens' scrutiny.
"Transparency of assets and control of conflicts of interest are key conditions for Romania's accession to the OECD. PNL and USR throw away a strategic national objective to save the careers of leaders definitively sanctioned. And everything is negotiated on the fly, without the European Commission, packaged with the 'NRRP' lie. After today's meeting with ANI leadership, PSD has the full list of amendments that mutilate the agency. We will vote against all of them, without exception. Romanians must see that integrity is not just a campaign slogan, but a set of principles that also apply to the pockets of USR leaders," PSD representatives say.
