A number of mayors said they are dissatisfied with the way in which the National Integrity Authority treats the law in relation to them. They said the abusive interpretations and the legislative shortcomings absorb the extremely limited resources of the local authorities.
In a news conference at IPN, the mayor of Colonița Angela Zaporojan related that their local creation center hasn’t worked for a period. The center houses the local library that was opened in January 2019. But a librarian could not be found to work on a salary of about 1,000 lei. On the initiative of the head of the creation center, the mayor’s daughter was hired to work as a librarian on half of the salary. Consequently, the National Integrity Authority invoked the conflict of interests and the Authority’s inspector issued an order to withdraw the mayor’s mandate. Angela Zaporojan said she challenged the decision as the mayor can be suspended from post by court or by the citizens who voted for this.
The mayor of Satul Nou village of Cimișlia district Eugenia Sîrghi said that in November 2019, after the local elections, she informed the NIA that since 2006 her sister-in-law has worked as an accountant at the mayor’s office. In its response, the Authority said it can ascertain a conflict of interests only as a result of a specialty control initiated and conducted in legal conditions by an integrity inspector. Later, someone from the village filed a complaint and a juridical control was initiated. Consequently, in its ascertaining document of December 15, the NIA accused her of violating the legal regime of the conflict of interests and held that the conflict of interests wasn’t declared. “I think both the law and the inspectors’ method of investigating mayors are imperfect,” stated the mayor.
The mayor of Ciorescu Ion Scripnic related that the NIA learned that the child of a relative of his was admitted to kindergarten based on an order issued by him. He cannot understand where a conflict of interests was as, if he hadn’t made that order, another solution in the case of that child wouldn’t have existed. On March 8, he allocated bonuses to over 200 female public sector employees following a decision taken by the local council. Among those women was a relative of his in relation to whom he didn’t declare a conflict of interests. The mayor noted that judging by the way in which the NIA treats the law, all the mayors should have their mandates withdrawn.
The news conference forms part of the series of conferences held in the framework of IPN’s project “Exposing Injustice through Multimedia”. IPN Agency does not assume the right to decide if the organizers of news conferences are right in the cases about which they will speak as this is the exclusive prerogative of justice, but the exaggeratedly long examination period of these cases, which is much longer than the law allows, can be considered an act of evident unfairness and injustice. IPN News Agency does not bear responsibility for the public statements made in the public sphere by the organizers of news conferences.
