Romanian Govt Regulates Antifraud Dept Reorganization To Comply With Constitutional Court Ruling

The Constitutional Court in July ruled unconstitutional the law approving Government Emergency Ordinance no. 3/2009, which dissolved the Antifraud Department. The ordinance transferred the Antifraud Department to the Government’s work apparatus, under the direct management of the prime minister and coordinated by the deputy prime minister. The normative act required staff to sign loyalty commitments and set that hiring would be based on the prime minister’s confidence in the applicant.

These hiring requirements, which the Constitutional Court said were illegal because they breached the Labor Code and the principle of equal opportunities, were eliminated from the draft law, which was sent to Parliament for approval late July. Romania’s minister-delegate for the relation with Parliament Victor Ponta said at that time he hopes the draft would be adopted in an extraordinary Parliament meeting, as the new provisions had to be adopted within a maximum 45 days to avoid a legislative void.

As the law has not been published in the country’s Official Journal so far, the government passed an emergency ordinance to regulate the reorganization of the Antifraud Department.