The invalidation by the Constitutional Court (CC) of a number of provisions of the law on the testing of the professional integrity will have a relaxation impact and will make the public servants have a less responsible behavior, considers the CReDO executive director Sergiu Ostaf. In an interview for Radio Free Europe, he said that the relaxation will result in behaviors when the influence from outside and the conduct with corruptible elements could be encouraged, IPN reports.
“The Court didn’t yet present its argumentation, but I’m eager to see it. There is now no valid instrument for using integrity testing. From this moment, the National Anticorruption Center cannot and has no instrument for implementing this law,” said Sergiu Ostaf, adding the Center’s work was practically suspended. “I understand that there are particular criminal cases involving persons who had a corruptible behavior at work. The law refers only to situations related to the professional activity, not to the private life, in the context of other activities. Now the fate of these cases is clear. These will be closed.”
The CReDO director also said that in the given situation he does not see to what extent the CC contributes to the promotion of the rule of law and of an independent public service that is not affected by clientele relations and not influenced by behaviors resulting from interest and by favoritism from outside. This is a problem and solutions to it should be found in Parliament so as to reinvigorate the instruments for combating corruption in the public service.
On April 16, the Constitutional Court ruled that the provisions of the law on the testing of the professional integrity of judges are constitutional, except for some articles. The Court’s president Alexandru Tanase said the state has the right to test the professional integrity of all the public functionaries, without exception, but the problem resides in the testing method and the institution that is empowered to do it.
The National Anticorruption Center’s vice director Cristina Tarna, who represented the Government in the hearing where the relevant challenge was examined, said the articles that were declared unconstitutional block practically fully the testing of the professional integrity because these provisions refer to the testing mechanism, but this mechanism was declared unconstitutional. Even if the law on the testing of the professional integrity of judges was generally declared constitutional, the articles that were declared unconstitutional made it nonfunctional and those functionaries who expected to be subject to the test can now sleep tranquilly.
