Romania’s public space has been long invaded by a phenomenon:
corruption. Our vocabulary has changed to accommodate it and we
invented the “corruption without corrupt people” phrase. Yet we
hear about people arrested and turned over to the justice system
every day. But we do not see the cases solved. There are live
arrests and too few sentences or acquittals in cases of high-level
corruption. We believe Romania is profoundly corrupt. Yet Public
Service Ministry statistics reveal that only 1.3% of cases sent to
the justice system are actually corruption cases. Is corruption a
myth? What needs to be done so as, in five years for instance, we
can shake this feeling that we are living in a corruption swamp,
the cancer that has been plaguing Romania for 20 years?
At least 10 high-ranking officials of the state have been sent
before the court of law over the last few days. They are
commissioners of the Financial Guard, the head of the Logistics and
Procurement Department of the Arges Police Inspectorate, a border
police officer, and the deputy manager of a county pension office,
employees of the Alba Prefect’s Office or the chief prosecutor of
the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Buftea Lower Court.
What is going on, is corruption on the rise or is the
effectiveness of the investigators improving?
“It’s hard to say. Generally what we feel is our perception
about the corruption and not the actual fact that can translate
into the number cases solved by the justice system. Yet my
impression is that Romania is a ‘captive state’ – one in which
corruption has reached a level where the state hardly has any
antibodies left to fight it,” believes Mircea Toma from Academia de
Monitorizare a Presei (Press Monitoring Academy), an NGO which
monitors the justice system in Romania.

Subiecte #Corruption#romania