General objectives and directions of action

The general objectives and directions of action included in this chapter take into account and are supplemented by the provisions of the other relevant national and sectoral strategies.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE No. 1 – INCREASING THE LEVEL OF IMPLEMENTATION OF tHE INTEGRITY MEASURES AT ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL

Specific objective no. 1.1. – Implementing the integrity measures at national level

1. Adopting and disseminating within the institution the statement on the undertaking of an organizational integrity agenda;
2. Adopting and disseminating within the institution the integrity plan, following consultations with employees and the risk assessment according to GD no. 599/2018 and ensuring the necessary resources for the implementation thereof;
3. Annual evaluation of the implementation of the plan and its adaptation to new risks and vulnerabilities;
4. Identifying, analysing, evaluating and monitoring the risks of corruption, as well as establishing and implementing measures to prevent and control them, according to the provisions of GD no. 599/2018;
5. Identifying, evaluating and unitary reporting of integrity incidents, according to the provisions of GD no. 599/2018, as well as the establishing prevention and or control measures if such incidents occur;
6. Submission of contributions requested by the technical secretariat and participation in strategy coordination and monitoring activities;
7. Enhancing the use of the new NAS portal to increase public awareness of NAS implementation monitoring, new trends and developments in the field of integrity;
8. Monitoring the development and implementation of the integrity plan within three public institutions, in a pilot system;
9. Improving the criteria for the selection, promotion and/or rewarding of persons in public office, by strengthening guarantees of integrity, also taking into account deviations from ethical standards.

Specific objective no. 1.2. – Improving international cooperation in the integrity field

1. Promoting Romania's active role in regional and international anti-corruption initiatives;
2. Improving the exchange of information and cooperation with authorities and similar structures in other states, international bodies and agencies, in order to promote integrity;
3. Increasing the use of the tools provided for in the documents adopted at regional or international level aimed at intensifying international cooperation in preventing and combating corruption.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE No. 2 – REDUCING THE IMPACT OF CORRUPTION ON CITIZENS

1. Increasing the level of anti-corruption education of citizens and public officials, with an emphasis on their rights in relation to public authorities and institutions and the impact of corruption on public services;
2. Strengthening the professionalism of public sector staff, including through an effective application of performance appraisal mechanisms, avoidance of temporary appointments to public management positions, transparency of recruitment procedures in the public sector and ensuring the stability of the public office;
3. Ensuring effective protection of citizens who report alleged integrity incidents committed by public service providers;
4. Developing a civic culture to fight against the "small" corruption phenomenon, including through the use of new technologies (e.g. social media);
5. Digitization of automated public services in order to reduce the risks of corruption generated by direct interaction with public officials;
6. Transparent regulation of procedures for quick (or urgent) access to public services;
7. Ex-post evaluation of public policies in terms of performance, profitability and public spending.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE No. 3 – STRENGTHENING INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATIVE CAPACITY TO PREVENT AND COMBAT CORRUPTION

Specific objective no. 3.1. – Streamlining anti-corruption prevention measures by addressing gaps and legislative inconsistencies, as well as ensuring their effective implementation 

1. Reviewing the legal framework regarding the ethics counsellor in order to consolidate his/her status and mandate (considering subsequent evolutions: analysis of the need to strengthen the status of the ethics counsellor by regulating a separate function, which is not added to current duties, and by considering a change of temporary status - either in the sense of permanence or in the sense of increasing the 3-year period);
2. Ensuring the functioning of a national network of ethics counsellors (annual events for training and dissemination of best practices);
3. Ensuring that the guardianship institutions effectively and uniformly apply the regulations which transpose the provisions of Directive 2019/1937, in all their subordinate structures, including in public companies;
4. Organizing information sessions for the public and private sectors on the new legal framework for transposing the provisions of Directive 2019/1937;
5. Drafting a guide on the whistle-blower protection which includes good practices identified at national and European level;
6. Establishing a unitary legal framework for the regulation of post-employment interdictions from the public to the private system and vice versa, control procedures regarding their observance and sanctions related to the violation of such interdictions, as well as the establishment of a priori verification procedures by private sector employers of observance of employment interdictions.

Specific objective no. 3.2. – Extending the culture of transparency for an open government in public administration

1. Monitoring and evaluating the application by the central and local public administration of the general standard for publishing information of public interest provided in Annex no. 4; (Annex 4 shall also include the following indicators: annual publication of the European funds attracted by each central institution and highlighting this on the institution's website; publishing contract execution documents on the contracting authority’s website: quality and compliance statements, minutes of receipt, payment orders);
2. Amending the legal framework in order to ensure the uniform application of the general standard for the ex-officio publication of public interest information at the level of central and local public authorities;
3. Ensuring the operational and legal framework for the use of the platform E-consultare - centralized catalogue for the publication of draft laws for public consultation purposes;
4. Developing the CONECT platform (Catalogue of Non-Governmental Organizations for Evidence, Consultation and Transparency) to support the proper takeover by the public administration authorities of the specialization at the level of civil society;
5. Strengthening and extending the Single Register of Transparency of Interests (RUTI) platform at the level of the Romanian Parliament and local public administration, as well as by raising awareness of the importance of the principles of integrity and transparency and integrity in decision-making processes.
6. Updating the single record of non-profit legal entities with public utility status and supporting the initiating authorities in order to monitor and assess the application of the provisions of GO no. 26/2000 regarding the public utility status.

Specific objective no. 3.3. – Improving the capacity to deal with management failures by correlating instruments that have an impact on the early identification of institutional risks and vulnerabilities

1. Performing an internal audit, once every two years, of the corruption prevention system at the level of all public authorities;
2. Performing external audits of organizational integrity systems at the level of central public administration and, subsequently, at the level of local public administration;
3. Assessing the internal managerial control mechanism from the perspective of standard no. 1 - ethics, integrity, in order to identify possible vulnerabilities;
4. Strengthening corruption risk management mechanisms by developing dedicated IT applications;
5. Developing the National Anti-Fraud Strategy 2021-2027, under the coordination of the Fight Against Fraud Department;
6. Organizing awareness-raising and training activities in order to streamline cooperation with EPPO during the investigations or the criminal prosecutions conducted in accordance with the principle of sincere cooperation.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE No. 4 – STRENGTHENING INTEGRITY IN PRIORITY FIELDS OF ACTIVITY

Specific objective no. 4.1. – Strengthening integrity, reducing vulnerabilities and the risk of corruption in the public health system

1. Strengthening the mechanism for prioritizing budget allocations and evaluating the appropriateness of the decisions of the MH and CNAS on the use of public funds according to specific methodologies;
2. Ensuring transparency of the use of public resources through the centralized publication of data on procurement procedures in the health sector (on the ms.ro website and other IT platforms);
3. Supplementing and consolidating the control and integrity structures of the MH and CNAS;
4. Establishing at MH and CNAS level a joint mechanism for monitoring and controlling suppliers in the social health insurance system;
5. Strengthening the mechanism of traceability of medicine on the Romanian market;
6. Providing in the management contract of the public hospitals of some evaluation indicators by which the acts of corruption, incompatibilities, abuses and conflicts of interests of the subordinate personnel are considered management failures;
7. Optimizing the implementation of the Standard Methodology for assessing the risks of corruption within central public authorities and institutions of the public health system;
8. Carrying out continuous methodological guidance activities on issues related to transparency, ethics and integrity, dedicated to the staff of the institutions in the public health system.

The implementation of this specific objective shall be monitored by a dedicated Working Group, which will meet quarterly. The monitoring procedure shall be detailed in the Methodology for monitoring the implementation of the strategy, approved by Order of the Minister of Justice, after consultations with the cooperation platforms.

Specific objective no. 4.2. - Increasing integrity, reducing vulnerabilities and the risk of corruption in the national education system

1. Tackling topics related to the prevention of victimization and discrimination, the rule of law, the management of aggression and the prevention of corruption in the curricula of disciplines which target the development and diversification of social and civic competences in pre-college education;
2. Approving a guideline for drafting the ethics code for the pre-college education, adapted to specific needs;
3. Strengthening the standardized publishing information concerning the revenue, expenditure, public procurement, sponsorships, as well as the academic activity at the level of public schools/colleges (centralized publishing / aggregated);
4. Extending the protocol on legal education in schools, universities included;
5. Strengthening the mechanisms for authorization / accreditation / certification of anti-corruption courses providers from the perspective of service quality, including by establishing a mechanism for continuous evaluation of service quality and developing a mechanism for random selection of NQA evaluators for the final exams, in compliance with the obligations to avoid conflicts of interest and the revolving doors situations between them and the training providers;
6. Regulating in the primary legislation the situations that may generate conflicts of interest or incompatibilities among teachers, such as: teaching private lessons to students from their own school classes, after-schools activities carried out by teachers for students from their own classes, developing exam subjects for students from their own classes;
7. Increasing objectivity by identifying IT solutions in order to decide the composition of evaluation formats within the education system (such as ARACIS, ARACIP, CNPEE);
8. Ensuring the correctness of teachers' assessments in accordance with the objectives of the curricula and the rules of integrity by establishing a standard procedure for random selection of evaluation committees’ members;
9. Organizing courses on ethics and integrity, especially for higher education teachers who teach courses on ethics and integrity, and focusing on ethical issues in research methodology courses in university education;
10. Using of anti-plagiarism software both for major exams (bachelor's theses, dissertations, doctoral theses etc.) in higher education, and for current exams (e.g. essays);
11. Ensuring the uniform application of integrity standards, with the by Ministry of Education playing an active role in supporting/ ensuring the methodological guidance of all those responsible for the implementation of the NAS in its subordinate or coordinated units, including by developing guiding procedures;
12. Ensuring transparency and standardization of decision-making processes in the field of quality assurance, while clarifying the roles of public institutions with responsibilities in the field (e.g. MEN - ARACIS), so that decisions in the field are predictable and easy to follow by their beneficiaries. and by society as a whole. For example, the transparency of how to set the maximum recommended number of students.
13. Impact assessment and, where appropriate, regular review of tools for monitoring, evaluating and sanctioning deviations from academic ethics and integrity.

The implementation of this specific objective shall be monitored by a dedicated Working Group, which will meet quarterly. The monitoring procedure shall be detailed in the Methodology for monitoring the implementation of the strategy, approved by Order of the Minister of Justice, after consultations with the cooperation platforms.

 Specific objective no. 4.3. - Increasing integrity, reducing vulnerabilities and the risk of corruption in the local public administration

1. Developing a unitary regulatory framework on the administrative procedures available at TAUs, thus reducing the degree of vulnerability;
2. Automating the authorization process (for the five administrative procedures described in the Study on the analysis of administrative procedures as being most vulnerable for corruption) and minimize the interaction between the civil servant and the citizens;
3. Annual updating of the integrity index within the local public administration;
4. Implementing joint projects / activities with the participation of local public authorities and civil society representatives, with the aim of preventing corruption, promoting ethics and integrity;
5. Establishing eligibility criteria from the perspective of the integrity framework applicable to LPAs for accessing public funding;
6. Ensuring transparency of funding procedures through national investment programs and streamlining mechanisms for collecting and publishing data on the implementation of projects financed by the programme.

Specific objective no. 4.4. - Increasing integrity, reducing vulnerabilities and the risk of corruption in public procurement

1. Performing an analysis of judicial practice in public procurement, a useful analysis for the unification of practice, including by promoting the appeals in the interest of the law (measure taken over from the NAS 2012-2015);
2. Developing a national risk map with the purpose to identify the functions involved in public procurement that are vulnerable to corruption, the areas where public procurement is more prone to corruption and the stages of public procurement procedures where signs of corruption appear;
3. Attracting and retaining public procurement staff in the system, including by strengthening their status, staff training programmes and ensuring an adequate protection regime against intimidation or corruption attempts;
4. Developing guidelines for direct public procurement and models for institutional procedures exempted from Law no. 98/2016 on public procurement, as subsequently amended and supplemented;
5. Further reforming the ex-ante control by increasing the capacity of the staff involved in this activity to identify those elements that may affect the intensity and quality of competition in the verified award procedures;
6. Encouraging the use of innovative approaches in order to involve civil society in monitoring the integrity of public procurement;
7. Introducing in the procurement documentation of questionnaires on the bidders' integrity programmes.

Specific objective no. 4.5. – Increasing integrity, reducing vulnerabilities and the risk of corruption in the business environment

1. Continuing to pursue Romania’s objective to become a full-fledged member of the OECD and its relevant workgroups, especially the Working Group on Bribery. This shall also include the full endorsement and implementation of the OECD convention on combating bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions, adopted in Paris on 21 November 1997, entered into force on 15 February 1999;
2. Regulating the introduction of the compliance function in public enterprises and creating an appropriate occupational standard for compliance officers;
3. Developing a national integrity monitoring system from the perspective of integrity, at the level of public enterprises;
4. Strengthening the use of integrity plans as managerial tools to promote organizational integrity in state owned companies;
5. Exchanging best practices in implementing the integrity programmes between the private and the public sectors;
6. Disclosing in open format the economic and performance indicators (including the budgets and subsidies received from public authorities) for state-owned enterprises, both by structures of the central and local public administration;
7. Developing a study on integrity incidents and remedial measures applied in the Romanian business environment;
8. Implementing open contracting data standards;
9. Encouraging private operators to include anti-corruption clauses in contracts, allowing the non-guilty party to unilaterally terminate the contract if the other party is definitively convicted for corruption and to use due diligence questionnaires to assess the integrity of the business partners, throughout the supply and distribution chain.

Specific objective no. 4.6. – Increasing the transparency of political advertising and the integrity of political party funding, as well as the integrity of elections and referendums

1. Introducing a definition of political advertising in Law no. 334/2006 on the financing of electoral campaigns and the activity of political parties, republished, as subsequently amended and supplemented;
2. Increasing the transparency of information regarding the online political advertising, as well as the people involved in the financing, preparation, placement and distribution of political advertising, as well as the proper marking of political advertising;
3. Electronic reporting and centralization of information on the financing of the current activity of political parties, the financing of electoral campaigns and referendum campaigns;
4. Ensuring the disclosure, in accessible formats, of the financing sources of the activity of political parties, electoral and referendum campaigns, as well as the related expenses;
5. Amending the criteria for granting subsidies from the state budget for the activity of political parties, in order to extend their granting area also in the case of political parties that, although they have not obtained mandates in the Parliament or in the county councils, have a significant degree of representativeness;
6. Ensuring the ongoing training of persons who may become members of election boards and polling stations, election experts and IT operators on the specific issues of integrity concerning the electoral processes and the reduction of the risk of corruption, as well as establishing a mechanism to assess their performance;
7. Regulating an IT tool to check for bans on the right to be elected and the right to hold an eligible public office and making it available for election boards and polling stations;
8. Adopting the necessary measures for the operationalization of the National Electoral Network regulated by Law no. 208/2015 on the election of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, as well as for the organization and functioning of the Permanent Electoral Authority.

Specific objective no. 4.7. - Increasing integrity, reducing vulnerabilities and the risk of corruption in the activity of the members of Parliament

1. Improving the transparency of the legislative process:

(i) by further developing the rules on public debates, consultations and hearings, including criteria for a limited number of circumstances where in camera meetings can be held, and ensuring their implementation in practice;

(ii) by assessing the practice followed and revising the rules to ensure that draft legislation, amendments to such drafts and the agendas and outcome of committee sittings are disclosed in a timely manner, and that adequate timeframes are in place for submitting amendments and

(iii) by taking appropriate measures so that the urgent procedure is applied as an exception in a limited number of circumstances;

2. Ensuring the existence of a mechanism for observing the Code of Conduct, when necessary;
3. Establishing a robust set of rules regarding gifts, hospitality, favours and other benefits for the members of the Parliament and ensuring that such a system is properly understood and applied;
4. Introducing rules on how Members of Parliament interact with lobbyists and other third parties who seek to influence the legislative process;
5. Revising and improvement of the system of immunities of serving members of the Parliament, including those who are current or former members of the Government, including by providing clear and objective criteria for decisions to waive parliamentary immunity;
6. Establishing by the parliamentary authorities for their members of (i) a system of counselling through which members can seek advice on integrity matters and (ii) provide dedicated and regular training on the implications of the existing and yet-to-be adopted rules concerning the preservation of the integrity of parliamentarians, including the future Code of conduct;
7. Ensuring appropriate interinstitutional cooperation on the proper reporting regarding the implementation of recommendations made by international bodies concerning the fight against corruption.

Specific objective no. 4.8. - Increasing integrity, reducing vulnerabilities and the risk of corruption in the field of environmental protection

1. Training the staff of central and local public authorities and the private sector representatives on environmental integrity issues (including the management of conflicts of interest in the implementation of environmental law and natural resource use) and mitigating the risk of corruption;
2. Identifying the activities that are most vulnerable to corruption;
3. Cooperating with POHCCJ, SCM, NIM, ME and MIA in order to develop a curriculum for the professional training of practitioners involved in preventing and combating environmental crime, which includes aspects on preventing and combating the associated corruption (Recommendation 8. GENVAL - it should provide more training opportunities for practitioners involved in detecting and/or combating environmental crime (e.g. police, customs authorities, prosecutors and judges);
4. Developing / strengthening partnerships with non-governmental organizations / the private sector working in the field of environmental protection (GENVAL 10.1.2. 2. Member States are encouraged to develop effective tools for cooperation with NGOs in order to improve the resolution of environmental complaints, such as those established between the Romanian authorities and Greenpeace (see 5.1.5 and 5.5).

Specific objective no. 4.9. - Increasing integrity, reducing vulnerabilities and the risk of corruption in the field of cultural heritage protection

1. Adopting a transparent framework, based on objective criteria for the appointment, organization and functioning of specialized commissions;
2. Identifying situations that may generate conflicts of interest during the issuance of certificates, agreements, permits, authorizations;
3. Adopting a code of ethics for members of specialized commissions, as well as regulating the obligation of members of specialized commissions to submit declarations of interests;
4. Ensuring a transparent, simplified and computerized process for issuing certificates, permits, authorizations and ministerial orders regarding cultural heritage objectives;
5. Strengthening the inspection and control mechanism regarding the issuance of certificates, permits, authorizations and ministerial orders regarding cultural heritage objectives;
6. Developing and implementing operational procedures with unitary content at the level of decentralized services of the ministry.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE No. 5 – STRENGTHENING THE PERFORMANCE IN THE ANTICORRUPTION FIELD BY CRIMINAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE MEANS

Specific objective no. 5.1. – Continuing the progress already made in the process of impartially investigation and the adjudication by the courts of high level and local level corruption

1. Continuing the professional and impartial investigation in cases which involve the competence of the DNA;
2. Allocating new headquarters to the DNA and ensuring the financial resources necessary for the organization of the new headquarters, which should be appropriate also from the perspective of the EPPO support structure and for the Technical Service to be developed;
3. Further developing the DNA Technical Service, including at the local level (3 local centres, with staff from the 90 police officers provided), in order to be able to fulfil the tasks resulting from the application of the special methods of technical supervision provided by the of Criminal Procedure Code, including as a consequence of the RCC Decision no. 51/2016;
4. Ensuring the necessary financial and human resources for the performance of the support activities in relation with investigations in high level corruption cases by allocation and budgeting of 90 additional positions of police officers within the DNA;
5. Establishing, within DNA, a department for the data analysis in relation with corruption offences investigated by DNA;
6. Annual analysis of the data resulting from the indictments prepared by DNA prosecutors and, respectively, from the final court decisions, in order to identify criminal typologies;
7. Enhancing efforts to unify judicial practice in the field of corruption, including by promoting ordinary remedies and appeals;
8. Monitoring criminal case files older than 1 year from the date of notification by the prosecutor's offices and establishing the necessary measures for their resolution;
9. Providing financial and infrastructure support for the Support Structure of the European prosecutors delegated in Romania (including the 3 territorial offices);
10. Effective use of legal and institutional mechanisms for the assets recovery;
11. Increasing the capacity of the Romanian Police and the General Anticorruption Directorate for documenting and investigating criminal acts of corruption according to their competences, by ensuring proper staff training and the necessary material and financial resources;
12. Developing the operational capacity of the structures of the Romanian Police and the General Anticorruption Directorate, which carry out activities regarding the protection of witnesses, finding flagrant crimes, using undercover investigators, collaborators or informers, respectively using special methods of surveillance or investigation provided by law, in case of corruption offences;
13. Providing the necessary equipment, as well as the financial and human resources required for the operational framework for preventing and fighting corruption.

Specific objective no. 5.2. - Ensuring integrity in the exercise of public functions and dignities

1. Reviewing and updating the legislation on the integrity framework, in order to respond to the recommendations of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) and the rule of law mechanism;
2. Strengthening ANI by allocating the necessary financial and human resources in order to fulfil the duties provided by the Law for the transposition of the directive regarding the whistle-blower’s protection;
3. Digitization of the system for declaration of assets and interests, in order to automate the process of filling in, submission and processing;
4. Organizing training sessions for persons covered by Law no. 176/2010;
5. Developing an "induction" type package addressed to dignitaries and their cabinets, which will facilitate the integration within the public administration and the Romanian Parliament, including from the perspective of the applicable integrity rules;
6. Designing a digital awareness and prevention platform through which relevant stakeholders will be able to clarify, on their own, certain obligations regarding the integrity framework, which they must comply with.

Specific objective no. 5.3. – Preventing and fighting corruption, as a facilitator of the activity of organized crime groups

1. Analysing judicial practice in the field of corruption associated with organized crime in order to identify relevant typologies;
2. Streamlining the protection of staff involved in preventing and fighting corruption, with a focus on officials working in connection with organized crime groups;
3. Strengthening the capacity of prosecutors to identify situations in which organized crime groups receive support from officials;
4. Developing a mechanism to trigger alerts when law enforcement agencies' computer systems are interrogated for illegal operational information;
5. Analysing and, as appropriate, reviewing the legislative framework for the functioning of the DGA in order to align with the requirements of the general criminal policy and to adapt the operational capacity to the trend and dynamics of the corruption phenomenon.

Specific objective no. 5.4. - Strengthening the methodological coordination role of the Prime Minister's Inspection Body in the field of administrative control carried out at the level of the central public administration:

1. Regulating the methodological coordination function of the structures with control attributions within the ministries and authorities of the central public administration, respecting their operational independence, in order to create a quality standard in control, applicable at the level of the entire governmental apparatus;
2. Strengthening the capacity of administrative control structures in the central public administration to identify the institutional risks and vulnerabilities, implicitly those that concern aspects of integrity;
3. Organizing training sessions and continuous education sessions for the staff with control responsibilities;
4. Developing a cooperation mechanism between administrative control structures in order to carry out multidisciplinary control actions.