The decision of the CCR that cancels the principle of the transparency of the declarations of wealth submitted by the persons in the public service will produce “immediate and profound”, warns a former director of the National Integrity Agency. It will also affect the processes that are opened by the National Integrity Agency and, worse, has to affect Romania’s credibility itself, Horia Georgescu, former director of ANI, believes.
Former ANI director, Horia Georgescu Photo: Marian Iliescu
The Constitutional Court of Romania declared two articles of Law no. 176/2010 regarding integrity in the exercise of public functions and dignities. One of these, now declared unconstitutional, stipulates that the statements of wealth must also include the goods and revenues of the spouse and of the maintenance children, and the second refers to the obligation of the National Integrity Agency to publish the statements of wealth and interests on its official website. What the CCR decided on Thursday, May 29, 2025, is definitive and mandatory and will apply only to the declarations of wealth submitted after the publication of the CCR decision in the Official Gazette.
In fact, however, there will be effects on the statements of wealth already published and which are the subject of processes in the role, reported Horia Georgescu, former director of ANI. Moreover, the severity of the situation goes beyond the legal plan, as it is, Georgescu appreciates, “About the international credibility of Romania at a time marked by geopolitical uncertainty and internal political fragility ”.
“According to the major syncopes registered in relation to the strategic partner, Romania risks losing their confidence in front of the European Union, exactly in the stage where it seemed to strengthen its status as a mature and predictable Member State. Accession to the OECD, where ANI was presented as an institutional model, is seriously vulnerabil. Governance and public integrity – the strategic impact is major, and the consequences, difficult to quantify at this time ”warns the one who led for years.
“A major breach opens in the national architecture of protecting the integrity of the civil service”
“Two essential aspects should be emphasized in relation to the decision given yesterday by the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR):
1. Although the applicability of the decision is formally limited to the future, its practical effects are immediate and profound. The ongoing files, including those in the role of the courts with the object of verification of wealth, will be severely affected. The central mechanism used so far – the comparative analysis between incomes and expenses – becomes, in fact, unusable. Elimination of the obligation of exhaustive declaration of the heritage held together with the family and the exclusion from the evaluation of the family members (husband/wife, children in maintenance) empty the content and efficiency procedure.
2. Consequently, the National Integrity Agency will no longer be able to request documents and information about these persons, which drastically reduces the institutional investigation capacity. If until now the wealth control procedure was present structural deficiencies, following this decision it becomes practically inoperable. This opens a major breach in the national architecture to protect the integrity of the public function ”is the signal of the former director of ANI.
Georgescu explained for the “truth” that although formally the decisions of the Constitutional Court apply only for the future, this decision can affect the processes on the role. “The problem is that from practice, from what happened in the past of the National Integrity Agency, the decisions of the Constitutional Court can be relevant in the present and past context. In the sense that in the files under verification at the National Integrity Agency and the files that are in the role of the court, as long as the Constitutional Court’s decision has ruled that the persons outside the holder are no longer the subject of the declaration of wealth, you can no longer consider an exhaustive calculation of the declaration of the declaring. And in this way it is a substance problem for each folder that has as object the verification of wealth“, Stated Horia Georgescu.
ANI has crossed, in 2010, a crisis similar to the one now, “But then there were viable legal alternatives and solid political support for remediation. Today, this support is missing”, the former chief of years also reported. “The current situation I said was different. Then we had a commitment that Romania had made when it became a member of the European Union through Treaty. And we had two things that were a national priority: the mechanism of cooperation and verification (MCV) with one of the conditionalities, the number 2, the National Integrity Agency, and the second was the Romanian goal. To achieve these goals.explained Georgescu.
Instead, the basic principle of agency’s functioning is affected instead “Namely the cornerstone, that is, the transparency of the declarations of wealth and interest.”
Return to the situation of 1996
The decision given by the RCC is actually a return in time, at the situation almost 30 years ago when the declaration of wealth was a simplified form that was kept secret. “That is, no one could see it, no one checked these statements of wealth. Later, after they became public, anyone could access them. NGOs, justice, citizens and investigative journalists. There were hundreds of cases in the history of the National Integrity Agency in which we noticed. in which The statements are transparent and anyone can access them ”, Horia Georgescu also stated for “Adevărul”.
In the hours elapsed from the communication of the CCR decision the issue of cancellation of the transparency of the declarations of wealth was returned on all faces and has been discussed including the efficiency of years. Moreover, it was written about the need to reform this institution. The former director says, however, that ANI has met all his goals over time and, moreover, is recognized as an institutional model and as an effective integrity system. “He ticked all the reports of the European Commission on the mechanism of cooperation and verification, the accession to Schengen space was done, and then the National Integrity Agency is presented at the OECD and the World Bank as an institutional model. Now I do not say that no improvements are needed, but you need some legislative improvements to help the work of the National Integrity Agency, because this institutional framework worked, it was effective and has achieved its results ”, Georgescu stressed.
Also in the public space it was reported that both years and ANAF would need modern tools to be able to effectively check those declared by the employees in the public system.
“This is a matter of interconnection of databases and does not necessarily belong to the National Integrity Agency, it is related to the Ministry of Interior, it is about STS, it is about the National Agency for Fiscal Administration. I bring you to attention that ANI operates an extremely effective system, which is called prevention, which has led to the prevention of all conflicts of interest in Romania so that Romania will no longer pay penalties of about 200 million euros that had this purpose in 2012-2013 ”, A Commented Georgescu. ANI has, on the other hand, to verify the declarations of wealth, the possibility to consult certain databases, but those databases are not interconnected with the database containing the declarations of wealth and interests.
“There is a possibility for someone to convey goods on behalf of children”
Horia Georgescu explained how it affects the fact that in the declaration of wealth it is no longer mandatory to include information about the goods held by the spouse and children. If the spouse also has the obligation to submit the declaration of wealth, certain information can be verified by analyzing both documents, but the fact that the mention of children can no longer be a problem.
“There is a possibility for someone to transmit goods on behalf of children. And then, the National Integrity Agency has no tool to check it ”, said Georgescu. This disadvantage will be extremely difficult to adjust even through a new legislative initiative, as there are already proposals in the public space, because the situation is different from the one of 2010.
“Now it is a matter of principles and I do not see where legislative could intervene to correct this”, Georgescu concluded.
