The Foundation For The Defense Of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) has analysed how public institutions and authorities in Romania deal with citizens' complaints against public officials. The results are worrying: the current mechanism for holding public officials accountable tends to protect and favour them, to the detriment of citizens.
Only 2% of officials are held accountable:
In Romania, the negative attitude of civil servants is a recognised problem, with citizens often experiencing abuse and unprofessional behaviour from them. However, FACIAS has learned that only 2% of civil servants against whom disciplinary complaints are lodged are ultimately sanctioned.
- About 98% of the complaints registered by citizens were closed. In the case of many institutions, the closure rate is 100%, such as the Ministry of Justice, the ANAF and various municipalities.
Sanctions are only a formality
In the 2% of complaints that were upheld, the sanctions imposed were superficial, such as a written reprimand or a 5% reduction in pay entitlements for a period of one month.
Under the current mechanism, a citizen who feels that he/she has been mistreated by a public official (through misconduct, inappropriate behaviour, refusal or failure to provide information, discrimination, failure to deal properly with a request, etc.) can lodge a complaint with the disciplinary committee of the institution concerned. This committee will examine the complaint and decide whether it is justified and may impose sanctions on the official concerned.
Where's the fairness?
This system raises serious questions about the independence and impartiality of the review and sanctioning process, as the members of the panel are drawn from within the institution concerned and some members are appointed by the head of the institution. This structure allows decisions to be influenced in favour of officials, which undermines public confidence in the administrative justice process.
The facts of FACIAS research
- For example, according to the response received by FACIAS from the Ministry of Justice, in the period 2018-2024, six complaints were registered regarding disciplinary offences, all of which were closed.
- The Ministry of Labour registered 51 complaints: 42 were closed, 6 were proposed for disciplinary sanctions and 3 are still under investigation.
- ANAF Craiova registered 169 complaints, of which only 4 were found to be disciplinary offences.
FACIAS calls for urgent reform
In light of these worrying figures, FACIAS calls for the regulation of the administrative procedure in place to ensure a transparent and fair process for investigating complaints of abuse by public officials.