The anticorruption prosecutors handle 220 cases and the work of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office could be accelerated if the institution was empowered as the law provides. According to the deputy chief prosecutor of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (APO) Octavian Yakimovski, the lack of appropriate headquarters limits he anticorruption prosecutors in their work. According to Veronica Dragalin’s deputy, the Parliament only adopted a decision that gives more powers to the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, but the provisions remained only on paper, IPN reports.
The prosecutor said that the problem of headquarters of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office complicates the institution’s work. Due to lack of space, new people cannot be hired at the APO.
“Now we have around 220 criminal cases under management. Of course, things will go faster if the procedure for empowering the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office is completed. We really hoped that from March 1 we would be fully equipped to function as Romania’s DNA works. Parliament made a decision and that‘s all. We don’t have more employees. We only have a Parliament decision that allows more people to be employed at the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office. At the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, there is physical space left to hire eight people. We are about 80 people. We can hire eight more, but we need to hire 110 more. How can that space accommodate 118? The problem of the headquarters is a sad one, not a funny one,” Octavian Yakimovski stated in the talk show “Resumé” on RliveTV.
Octavian Yakimovski said that although the authorities boast that they have increased the number of employees of the APO, this provision cannot be put into practice without a larger headquarters. Currently, the employees of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office work in the headquarters of the National Anticorruption Center.
“Investigations are conducted not with the pen in hand or sitting at the computer. Investigations are carried out through special investigative activities. If you hire additional staff and give an additional budget to an entity, you must also give them support staff. Such as a human resources, accounting, logistics and procurement division, which we cannot have for the simple reason that we have nowhere to hire personnel,” said the deputy chief prosecutor of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office.
By a Parliament decision adopted in February 2024, the number of employees of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office was increased by 54 staff units, from 144 to 198 people.
