DGA Chief Accuses Interior Minister of Interfering with Agency’s, Romanian Police’s Activity

The DGA chief accused the minister of presenting erroneous accounts of agency’s activity in a report published on Friday, when Dan also announced that several management changes will be made at the institution.

In the letter, Ionita detailed the circumstances of how he was appointed General Inspector of the Romanian Police in January 2018, in a scandal which ultimately led to the resignation of former Prime Minister Mihai Tudose.

According to the DGA chief, Carmen Dan lied in a report where she quoted his agreement to appoint him to the office, and attached to the open letter a notification he sent to the minister, dated during the scandal, in which he states his unwillingness to be appointed to the role.

Ionita specifies that he accepted the role “as a result of mounting pressures”, and resigned six months lather due to “numerous interferences” on part of the ministry in the Police’s activity.

The former police chief adds that he and his family were targeted by a surveillance operation, with witnesses and video evidence to support it, but that no measures were taken after he reported the situation to a ministry structure with competency in the field.

On the circumstances surrounding his June 2018 resignation, Catalin Ionita said that he was “forced” to make a report citing his possible resignation before he was set to depart for a UN mission in the United States, only to find out while abroad that the report was presented as a public resignation.

He added that pressures on part of the ministry continued after he returned to his role as DGA chief, as he was requested to replace several chiefs of the agency's territorial structures. Ionita claimed that he received various threats at the time for non-compliance, from framing him for corruption offences to having his PhD thesis publicly presented as a case of plagiarism. The former police chief said that he will "detail these aspects" with evidence.

“I am an honorable officer and I understood that I need to fulfill my duties according to my work obligations, but everything that cumulated until Friday means too much. I do it now because the institution has become involved. Because the messages received from my colleagues hint of desperation,” the DGA chief told MEDIAFAX when asked why he waited until Sunday to reveal the alleged interferences.

Furthermore, Ionita said that he raised the issues with the minister in a discussion the two had last week, but the latter “continued to present an erroneous situation” of the agency’s activity, accusing her of manipulating data regarding the percentage of Interior Ministry employees targeted by DGA probes.

“In most of these cases, the presence of an Interior Ministry employee is also corroborated with the inclusion of one or several suspects which are not employed by the ministry. Therefore, to say that only 10% of our suspects are MAI employees is grossly unprofessional,” said the DGA chief.

Catalin Ionita concludes by stating that the minister is seeking to depose him, despite not having any serious reasons to do so.

“Everyone is discussing the fact that I will be replaced, things are evident and the way events are happening shows it without any doubt. I was removed as Romanian Police chief and let institutional interest come first over my personal interest. But my action now is justified only by the obligation I have towards the structure I lead, because we must be a standard for integrity,” he told MEDIAFAX.

The interior minister previously announced in a report on Friday that there will be “organizational changes” at the agency, citing a lack of efficiency in tackling corruption within the ministry.

Catalin Ionita was appointed chief of the Romanian Police for 6 months on January 17, 2018, following a scandal between Carmen Dan and former Prime Minister Mihai Tudose regarding the role. The latter accused the minister of lying when she told him that Ionita gave his agreement to be appointed to the office and requested her resignation. However, the minister maintained her stance on the matter, which ultimately led to the ruling Social Democrat Party (PSD) withdrawing political support for Tudose, who then decided to reisgn from office.

Ionita resigned as Romanian Police chief in June 2018, shortly before he was subpoenaed as a suspect by anticorruption prosecutors under suspicions of requesting bribes. He said at the time that he decided to resign in order to avoid damaging the institution’s public image.

The former police chief was involved in an additional scandal towards the end of 2018, as the Bucharest Police Academy announced that it launched a probe for suspicions of plagiarism in his doctor’s degree thesis.

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