The head of the National Anticorruption Center (NAC) Iulian Rusu said the dissensions between the NAC and the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (APO) were overcome and the relations between the two institutions were restored. Earlier, from the Parliament’s rostrum, he said that the relations with the NAC were “unclear”. Iulian Rusu noted that following the clear delimitation of the duties, the APO now focuses on the cases of grand corruption, while the NAC’s task is to investigate systemic corruption, IPN reports.
The NAC head said their institution efficiently cooperates with the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office now that Parliament delimited by the law the duties of the two intuitions. This way, the APO can investigate cases involving the President, MPs, members of the Cabinet, judges, prosecutors, employees of the NAC, managers and officers of the Security and Intelligence Service, cases of bribery totaling over 300,000 lei and cases when the caused damage exceeds 3 million lei.
“The relationships are working ones at the moment. We continue to investigate cases of corruption and collect operational information. If the information is confirmed, criminal cases are started with the consent of prosecutors. The delimitation of duties was clarified meanwhile and the anticorruption prospectors now conduct investigations into cases of corruption involving larger bribe or cases of abuse, misuse or other offenses that cause more serious damage. The amendments took effect on August 22,” Iulian Rusu stated in the program “At 360 Degrees” on Radio Moldova station.
Under the new legislative amendments, the National Anticorruption Center handles cases of systemic corruption. Petty corruption will be within the remit of the investigation body of the Ministry of the Interior, which will cooperate with the NAC in this regard.
“We have the occasion of working also with municipal prosecutor’s offices. Even if less than a month has passed, we have investigated cases together with them, including in flagrante delicto cases. The Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office was freed from an important task and can now focus on high-profile cases. In the public sphere, they rumored that this was a kind of divorce or disagreement. This is not so. We continue being available and interested. If anticorruption prosecutors want to take part in investigation groups, we can become involved to investigate cases of grand corruption too. The bonds remain strong,” said the NAC director.
According to a note to the law to amend the Criminal Procedure Code, the clear delimitation of the duties of the NAC and APO is aimed at ensuring the implementation of the conditions put forward by the European Commission when the Republic of Moldova was granted the EU candidate status.
