They chose… the money! How much will the judges and prosecutors from Bihor who gathered at the head of the Electoral Bureaus earn

Almost two months before June 9, when Romanians will vote for both their local elected officials and their representatives in the European Parliament, the ballot already has the first winners: the judges and prosecutors who will lead the Electoral Offices designed to ensure the fairness of the electoral process in each city and commune , according to ebihoreanul.ro.

“They can’t get enough of money!” say the lawyers from the administration, members of the Corps of Electoral Experts who led the Offices in the past, about them. The reason for envy? Most Offices will have presidents and deputy magistrates, who will earn for this second job even 50,000 lei, while they will be paid “only” 18,300 lei.

Bihor it shows you how the “robes” ended up taking over the Electoral Offices, continuing to take their salaries, however huge, from the courts and prosecutor’s offices, and this even though the magistrates themselves complain that they have a lot of work. Well, some are responsible for enough cases in which the defendants are about to escape liability due to the statute of limitations, due to the passage of time…

Upset the magistrates

On April 12, when the presidents and deputies of the County Electoral Bureau and the 101 Electoral Circumscription Bureaus from as many municipalities, cities and communes in the county drew lots at the Bihor Court, the jurists from the local administrations were angry with the magistrates .

By tradition, as members of the Body of Electoral Experts, the jurists from the Prefecture, CJ Bihor and town halls were presidents and deputies of the local Electoral Bureaus every 4 years. Now, however, the chance to occupy these positions has been dramatically reduced, implicitly also the chance to collect the related revenues: by GEO 21/2024 regarding the combined elections of June 9 – local and European Parliament – the presidents and deputies of the Electoral Bureaus, which will operate until the validation election results, they are paid an allowance of 300 lei/day (taxable at 10%, the net amount being 270 lei/day), a fixed, non-taxable per diem of 35 lei/day, plus transport expenses if the Offices are in other localities than those where they have their domicile or residence.

Electoral experts are angry that this time the magistrates will be the ones making extra money, having priority over the heads of Bureaus based on Law 115/2015 on the organization and conduct of local elections, which shows that the appointment of presidents and deputies is made by the president of the Tribunal, “with priority from the list of magistrates” drawn up in each county, and only if the number of magistrates who want to occupy these positions is below the total number of positions, the remaining ones are filled by drawing lots from another list, that of electoral experts, managed by the County Directorate of the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP) and also made available to the Tribunal.

“robe” invasion

As never before, 81 judges and prosecutors were added to the list of magistrates determined to lead the Electoral Offices. Five competed for the positions of president and deputy of the BEJ (which can only be occupied by magistrates), among them being drawn by lot as president, judge Florina Crișan (photo)from the Bihor Court, and as substitute judge Mirea Gajdo Loreley Emese, from the Oradea Court of Appeal.

The other 76 magistrates “beat” the Electoral Offices of the municipalities, cities and communes, 68 becoming presidents, and 8 deputies. In Oradea, the Office will be presided over by judge Antik Levente (from the Court of Appeal), seconded by colleague Camelia Iova, in Salonta, judge Georgeta Ciungan (from the Tribunal) became president, and in Marghita, judge Marius Capotă (from the Court) .

The magistrates also targeted the heads of the communal offices: in Aușeu the president was drawn by lot the prosecutor Liviu Lascu (Military Prosecutor’s Office), in Biharia the judge Carmen Balogh (President of the Tribunal), in Brusturi the prosecutor Radu Alba (DNA), in Cetariu the prosecutor Alin Leucea (the Prosecutor’s Office Courts), in Lugașu de Jos prosecutor George Sas (DIICOT), in Sălacea prosecutor Cristian Ardelean (Bihor Prosecutor’s Office), in Şuncuiuș prosecutor Ciprian Man (Military Prosecutor’s Office), in Tileagd prosecutor Laura Șovarschi (from Alesd Prosecutor’s Office), and the examples can go on .

“They consider themselves detached”

The large number of magistrates candidates for the headship of the Electoral Bureaus for the June 9 elections is huge compared to the number of judges and prosecutors interested in 2020 (only 15) and 2016 (only 10).

Why did they get together now? Because, unlike electoral experts, magistrates have an even greater financial stake: in addition to the allowance of 300 lei/day and the per diem of 35 lei, they also aim for a secondment allowance of 2%/day of the gross monthly employment allowance. And as a magistrate’s salary is on average 30,000 lei gross, 2%/day would mean 600 lei/day. In the 60 days, this means 36,000 lei, money that together with the 18,300 lei gives a total of 54,300 lei.

The compensation of 2%/day would be claimed from the corroboration of some provisions of GEO 21/2024, according to which “the public authorities and institutions where the members of the Electoral Bureaus are employed ensure the payment of secondment allowances from sources from the state budget, through the budget of the Ministry of Internal Affairs”, and of GEO 27/2006 regarding the remuneration of judges and prosecutors, which says that magistrates seconded to a locality other than the one of their domicile “benefit from all the rights provided by law for the position in which they are seconded”.

Although Law 303/2006 on the status of judges and prosecutors stipulates that magistrates are seconded only within the judicial system, the corresponding section of the SCM (for judges and prosecutors, respectively) being able to order their secondment “to other courts/prosecutions, to the SCM, the Judicial Inspection , the National Institute of Magistracy, the National School of Clerks, the Ministry of Justice or at their subordinate units”, the magistrates invoke Law 115/2015, according to which “during the period that the Electoral Offices are operating, their members are considered seconded”. Therefore, the magistrates would be on a special secondment, outside the judicial system, but still a secondment, so they could collect the secondment allowance of 2%/day provided by GEO 27/2006.

MASTERS OF ELECTIONS. Unlike the previous elections, when their correctness was supervised by presidents and deputies of Electoral Bureaus appointed from among lawyers from local administrations, on June 9 this task will be performed by magistrates in the case of 76 Bihor Bureaus. Out of civic sense or for money?…

“I do not know”

None of the magistrates contacted by Bihor he does not admit, however, that he wanted to run the Electoral Offices for money. “I signed up because I saw that other colleagues were signing up as well,” says a prosecutor from the County Prosecutor’s Office.

Regarding the benefits, he claims that he only calculated the allowance of 300 lei/day and the per diem of 35 lei, but admits, however, that “among colleagues there is also talk about the secondment allowance” of 2%/day of the salary. “That 2% is written in the law, by the way. I bet on the usual allowances, we’ll see the rest later,” said the prosecutor.

Former head of DNA Oradea Ciprian Man (photo), now a military magistrate, states that in the past he did not want to lead Electoral Offices “because, being at the DNA, I worked in files with politicians and I wanted to avoid interpretations, even though the law also allows DNA prosecutors to be presidents and deputies at Offices”, but now he no longer has such moral constraints. Regarding the 2%/day allowance, Man says that “I don’t know if it’s given or not”, but added that “the decision will be made by the Military Prosecutor’s Office, and I think that if it’s going to be paid to the civil prosecutor’s office, it will be paid and at the military prosecutor’s offices”. Therefore, if the money will be given, let it be received!

How do I do with the files?

Asked how he will reconcile the professional schedule and the electoral extra-job in a commune, the hours of the Offices being between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. daily, a prosecutor stated that he can perform both tasks without problems. “Activities at the Electoral Office are according to the schedule of the Prosecutor’s Office, at the Electoral Office the permanence between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. is ensured by the technical staff, not the president. I, as president, go after I finish my service”. In other words, in the first part of the day he will work in investigations to get his salary as a magistrate, and then at the Electoral Office to get the president’s allowances!

It should be noted that the headship of some Electoral Offices was also assumed by judges with many cases in which the defendants are about to escape criminal liability through the statute of limitations, an example being Georgeta Ciungan (photo) from the Bihor Court. President of the Office in Salonta, she has to resolve cases such as that of the rector of the University, Constantin Bungău, sent to court by the DNA since 2016, the one in which the DNA indicted, in the same year, 7 customs officials with responsible positions (including the former head of the Regional Customs Directorate, Călin Vesa) and commissioners of the Financial Guard, for the protection of an evader from the oil trade, the case of the businessman Cosmin Bonica (evasion of 6 million lei) or of the Oradea policemen who helped the millionaire Victor Micula to illegally access confidential databases.

The BIHOREAN tried to find out how she will simultaneously manage both the duty to solve the lawsuits before it is too late, and that of president of the Electoral Office, but the judge did not answer either the phone or the written messages on this topic. Until the closing of the edition, the Ministry of Justice did not respond, and the CSM sent, at the request of the newspaper on this subject, only that it does not have any powers in appointing magistrates to the head of the Electoral Bureaus, as such it cannot rule on allowances either what they will be paid, nor if their “electoral” activity will affect the professional one. Like the Romanian, impartial… so, he abstains!