The National Integrity Agency announced on Monday that it detected a batch of 11 people against whom it established “integrity incidents”, among which is the general secretary of the city of Ștei, guilty of signing an administrative act that produced a material benefit .
According to the operation in Bihor, the benefit was… 120 lei, and it was obtained in 2021.
Laws broken
With regard to the general secretary of the city of Ștei, Voichița Dale, ANI announced on Monday, through a press release, that she was found guilty of “administrative conflict of interest” because “during the exercise of her public leadership position, she countersigned a administrative act that produced a material benefit”.
In the case of Voichița Dale, ANI referred to an article in Law no. 161/2003 on ensuring transparency in public functions: “The public official is in a conflict of interest if he is in one of the following situations: (…) his patrimonial interests, those of his spouse or first-degree relatives may influence the decisions he must make takes in the exercise of the public function”.
Also, another article of the same law provides that “in the event of a conflict of interest, the civil servant is obliged to refrain from solving the request, making a decision or participating in making a decision and to immediately inform the superior to which it is directly subordinated”.
On the other hand, the Administrative Code stipulates that “officials have the obligation to evaluate situations that may generate a situation of incompatibility or a conflict of interests and to act to prevent their occurrence or legally resolve them.”
A profit of 120 lei
Contacted by BihorVoichița Dale confirmed the fact that she was aware of the ANI approach and explained what the concrete act was that was imputed to her.
“In 2021, I was part of a committee to promote a lawyer who is subordinate to me, and who is not related to me, to a professional degree, and for the assessment made within the committee I was paid the sum of 230 lei gross, 120 lei net”, said the general secretary of the city of Ștei.
Dale did not want to comment on the steps he will take to appeal the ANI decision.
According to the legislation, the person “in relation to whom the existence of the conflict of interests was found is deprived of the right to exercise a position or a public dignity (…) for a period of 3 years from the date of release, dismissal from the position or public dignity respective or of the legal termination of the mandate. If the person has held an eligible position, he can no longer hold the same position for a period of 3 years after the termination of the mandate”.
Specializing in “plevusca”
In recent years, ANI stood out by focusing its investigations on mayors, vice-mayors and local councilors at the level of communes, including from Bihor, some of them winning the lawsuits filed against the institution to annul the decisions that concerned them.
One of the emblematic cases is that of the mayor of Tinca, Teodor Coste, whom in 2019 ANI found incompatibility because “in the 2012 – 2016 mandate, he simultaneously held and exercised the position of mayor and administrator in a commercial company“. In 2022, however, Coste won the case against ANI at the ÎCCJ, showing that he had set up a company to make a farm, but in the end it had no activity, issued no invoices and did not collect any leu, with even less to have done any business with the Town Hall of the commune or with another institution of the state.
In contrast, ANI has not had any investigations in recent years that have proven that a politician or high-ranking official made his fortune through illegal means.
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