The Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT) analyzed the income and interest statements for 2014 and how these were managed by the National Integrity Commission and identified a series of irregularities committed in the process of processing them. The most serious deviations include the lack of efficient control over the services provided by the company responsible for scanning the income and interest statements, incorrect management of personal data, regular delays in publishing the statements in an electronic form and non-publication of the statements of the members of the Commission, IPN reports.
According to a press release of ADEPT, in the electronic versions of the income and interest statements, some information of public interest that does not contain personal data is hidden by hachuring it. In particular, this refers to names and legal addresses of commercial organizations where state officials own shareholdings. It is thus hard to detect the possible conflicts of interest and incompatibility of public servants. Though ADEPT warned the Commission about these irregularities and asked dealing with them, the information of public interest from income statements published on the Commission’s website remains hidden.
However, there are statements that reveal personal data on the website. The same irregularities were identified in income statements for 2013 and the Commission also did nothing to remove them. Also, the tender contests held by the Commission to purchase services to digitize and scan income and interest statements were won by the state-run company “Fiscservinform” during two consecutive years. The value of the contract for 2015 is about 800,000 lei, approximately three times higher than in 2014.
Under the legislation, the National Integrity Commission is obliged to publish on its website all the statements submitted by functionaries during 30 days of their receipt and to ensure permanent public access to them. Though the deadline for submitting statements is March 31, most of the statements for 2014 started to be published on the Commission’s website in November 2015.
ADEPT also warned that the income and interest statements of the members of the Commission for all the years since it started work cannot be found on the website. This is serious violation of the law and of the fundamental principles for ensuring transparency and integrity.
