EUpolitix.com: Romania’s anti-corruption ‘czar’ (May 17, 2006)

May 17, 2006 (EUpolitix.com)

The European commission waved no red flags over Romania’s approach to corruption on Tuesday – thanks to the hard work of one woman in particular. Bucharest’s softly spoken justice minister Monica Macovei has defied her detractors and brought handfuls of senior politicians to book.

Turning the tide on Romanian corruption, the former human rights lawyer has launched investigations against Adrian Nastase, the former prime minister, nine members of parliament and four members of the current government, including the deputy prime minister.

Macovei took up her critical political post in 2004, unafraid of fighting corruption at the highest level.

“There were no big political prosecutions when I arrived, although they did prosecute a ticket collector on a train for accepting bribes,” she says.

Since her arrival, the justice department has indicted three judges and over 40 border police and shut down a secret police unit which Macovei suspected of blackmailing officials.

“The random distribution of cases may seem like a minor detail but it is very important,” Macovei continues.

“A random selection of cases is now distributed to judges via computer and this is something that Bulgaria does not do. I will be travelling to Sofia to talk to them about this.”

On Tuesday the commission came down hard on Sofia for failing to produce results in investigating organised crime.

Red flags were also waved in Bulgaria over insufficiently enforcing money-laundering rules and for poor controls over the spending of EU regional aid.

“The anti-corruption directorate that I set up in 2005 has given the judicial police a good budget and the competence to investigate people in high positions,” Macovei explains.

But the minister’s most useful weapon against corruption has been a requirement that politicians, senior civil servants, judges and customs officers make public declarations of all of their assets - this requirement has also lost her the most friends.

“I did not get much sympathy when I introduced the forms on interests and assets for MPs and over 100,000 civil servants. They are now the strictest in Europe. Officials have to say how much they have in every bank account, where they got their house, how much they earned last year and all of that information is published on the web,” she says.

“It was tough to get all of that information but we had to so that this process is transparent. We have proved we can do this and everybody wants to see this process continue.”

And she is adamant that Bucharest will continue its fight against corruption long after EU accession.

“This process is irreversible,” she insists. “I cannot say that this is not a corrupt country anymore but we needed to set up efficient mechanisms to fight corruption - and that is what we have done. The people of Romania want this reform and there will be pressure for it to continue.”

Macovei’s hard work has solidified Romania’s status as a credible EU candidate. This has not gone unnoticed in Brussels, where officials could soon be tempting her closer into the EU fold.


EUpoliticx.com