Workload & Poor Funding Prevents Actual Check Of Wealth Declarations

The National Agency for Integrity, or ANI, is lacking the financial, human and technical resources to properly conduct its job. By the current standards of operating the files submitted so far, the agency will manage to verify the verity of the wealth declarations in a few years time

The National Agency for Integrity, or ANI, is lacking the financial, human and technical resources to properly conduct its job. By the current standards of operating the files submitted so far, the agency will manage to verify the verity of the wealth declarations in a few years time.
With the number of public servants on its pay-roll raised to 33 since yesterday, ANI would still have to present a July report of activity recording no actual wealth of public official checked.
The ANI report will make part of the country report Romania has to file to the European Commission in July.
“We have no computer system to assist us, and so far we made a manual check of the hundreds of wealth declarations filed so far with the agency, which made up millions of pages,” said ANI president, Prosecutor Catalin Alexandru Macovei.
“Something is got to give; this is no way one could conduct a professional operation. We asked for a three million Euro budget increase, but we have to stop for now the recording of new wealth applications, as we have all our staff busy recording and processing the old ones,” added Macovei.
PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu said yesterday that ANI would get more money only if the request was solidly founded. He added that the ANI request was filed only Tuesday with the Ministry of Justice, and that the Government would decide on it in next week's meeting.
Twenty-five of the 33 inspectors vowed yesterday to respect the law and the Constitution, in a ceremony where Macovei welcomed them with th words: “You are the backbone of this institution and the reason why it exists. Your voice should be heard from now on.” The inspectors have a starting salary of 1,500 RON, or approximately 400 Euro.