Six months after the launch of the project "Be informed, NOT abused!", The Foundation for the Defense of the Citizen Against State Abuses (FACIAS) presents publicly the results for the period April - October 2021.
The project aims to inform citizens about: the rights they have in relation to state institutions; identifying and addressing abuses when they are committed; knowing the organisations and institutions that can provide support in the fight against such abuses. FACIAS provides, on request, within the limits of its possibilities, support, and advice to victims (mainly collective cases) of abuses committed by state institutions and collaborates with state institutions by identifying and promoting good practices in this field.
The project aims, implicitly, at stimulating the civic involvement of Romanian citizens, increasing the degree of responsibility and involvement in issues of national interest concerning the violation of their rights by state institutions.
The project aims, implicitly, at stimulating the civic involvement of Romanian citizens, increasing the degree of responsibility and involvement in issues of national interest concerning the violation of their rights by state institutions.
The main activities of the project, carried out in the first six months of the project, are:
- Informing citizens about their rights in relation to state institutions and the legal instruments they can use to seek justice: https://www.facias.ro/proiecte-2/
- Analysing problems reported by citizens; identifying practical solutions to them
- FACIAS questionnaire comprising eight questions: https://www.facias.ro/chestionar https://www.facias.ro/chestionar
- The Practical Guide is also built around the problems reported anonymously through the questionnaire to provide information that the Project's audience really needs! In addition, the findings of the Project's six-month report are sent to the ministries coordinating public institutions for which abuses have been identified by respondents.
- Student Essay Contest Studenți ”Fii informat, nu abuzat!” of essays, with prizes between 3000 and 1000 lei, held from October to December 2021: https://www.facias.ro/proiecte-2/
FACIAS Questionnaire Cumulative Results at Octobre 2021
The Project Questionnaire contains 8 questions of which, two are open-ended.
The questionnaire has been active since the start of the project (April 2021) and will remain so until the end of the project, with the analysis of the responses being updated periodically in line with the questionnaires completed by the public.
As for the age categories into which respondents fall, these are shown in the table below.
80% of respondents come from urban areas. 42% say they know very little or nothing about their rights; 47% think they know enough about their rights, while 9% say they know their rights very well in relation to state institutions.
10% consider that they have never been a victim of abuse by a state institution, while 47% have encountered a maximum of 6 situations of abuse in their life, 27% claim to have been a victim of such abuse more than 7 times. 74% of respondents claim to have been victims of abuse by state institutions.
Regarding the source of information on their rights in relation to state institutions, 32% turn to legislation, 10% to state institutions, 22% get information from the internet, 14% from relatives and only 13% turn to lawyers.
Of those who consider themselves victims of abuse by state institutions, 28% have filed petitions and complaints, 26% have drawn the attention of the institution by other means (verbal), 11% have appealed to the courts and 22% of victims have not acted in any way.
Problems and potential abuses perceived and reported by respondents concern areas such as:
- Justice (about 30% of all abuses reported by respondents)
- Retrocedes/inheritance/court cases, tasks of TAUs in this area - also found in perceived abuses in justice
- In the field of health services (approx. 15%)
- Limitation of rights due to the pandemic situation (approx. 10%)
- Care for the disabled (approx. 8-9%)
- Pensioners' rights (approx. 8-9%)
- Relations between citizens and state institutions (approx. 15%)
- Tax & ANAF taxpayer relations (approx. 5%)
- Rights of employees in public institutions (ca. 5%)
- Other categories/abuses reported in questionnaires (approx. 2-3%) - education etc.
From the total number of those who reported abuses (74%), the following situation emerges:
Justice
- Irregularities in inheritance lawsuits;
- Complaints that the deceased is most often at fault in lawsuits;
- Legislation constructed in such a way as to serve the interest of certain groups of citizens;
- Citizens who report irregularities feel persecuted and treated as criminals by institutions empowered to deliver justice;
- Law enforcement/security institutions are assimilated as generators of abuses in their work;
- Superficial judgement of cases in courts;
- Dramas generated by the footing of houses by bona fide buyers in favour of heirs (situations of retroceded property);
- Abusive expropriation;
- The slowing down of police investigations; the request from some police officers to withdraw complaints in order not to have unfinished cases, instead of continuing investigations in a professional manner;
- Superficial judgement without checking the originality of evidence in court;
- Citizens feel they are not equal in rights and obligations;
- Modification of laws, often by GEO, to create advantages for some social categories at the expense of others;
- Inequality and unprofessionalism of courts and lack of fairness in investigations;
- Police, including prosecutors, do not take complaints seriously and do not investigate them professionally, discouraging people from seeking help;
- The judiciary complains that those who dispense justice in the courts are unprofessional or serve vested interests, with citizens feeling that they are not getting justice; the judiciary does not always respect the law;
- Offenders are often more protected than their victims;
- The delay of trials until the statute of limitations runs out and the feeling of being wronged during trials;
- Different court solutions for similar situations, even though the law is the same for all;
- Irregularities in inheritance lawsuits;
- Grievances arising from pandemic status and limitation of certain rights;
- Faculties deliver certain services, but on demand, when they should be provided as a matter of principle;
- The punishment of illegal parking when the municipalities are not obliged by law to provide parking spaces;
- Complaints that in lawsuits, the deceased is most often at fault;
- Child taken by the state institution without summoning the parties (parents);
- Police/prosecutor's office/judiciary biased, self-serving justice (e.g. cover-up of pedestrian crossing murder case, courts);
- Justice shows incompetence, corruption, disinterest, cover-up;
- Police refusal to record objections of those fined;
- Cops break the rules (traffic or state of alert), but fine citizens for the acts they also break.
Retrocessions/inheritances/trials in the court, in the field/UAT tasks in the field - (also found in perceived abuses in the field of justice):
- Failure by municipalities to issue documents for the removal of land ownership;
- Dramas generated by the footing of houses by bona fide buyers in favour of heirs (situations of retroceded property);
- Abusive retrocessions in support of interest groups connected to decision-makers to the detriment of the justiciable;
- Unjust situations generated by retrocession legislation to which those who have lost the lawsuits fall victim (either as tenants or owners);
- Repossessions based on interest group criteria;
- “Încălcarea legii recunoștinței (prevede împroprietărire revoluționari – LEGE nr. 341 din 12 iulie 2004 a recunoștinței pentru victoria Revoluției Române din Decembrie 1989, pentru revolta muncitorească anticomunistă de la Brașov din noiembrie 1987 și pentru revolta muncitorească anticomunistă din Valea Jiului – Lupeni – august 1977 )
- Abusive expropriation.
In the field of health services:
- During the pandemic period, patients with other conditions felt neglected and delayed, a possible cause of worsening health conditions;
- The medical act's superficiality/unprofessionalism;
- Superficiality/unprofessionalism of medical care;
- Payment of medical services, although they are provided through the Health Insurance Fund;
- Ignorance of patients' rights and lack of information and explanations in common language (especially related to the Emergency Unit);
- Lack of funds prevents patients from having investigations - they are expensive and often they are not done;
- The patient is not treated adequately, with respect;
- Abuse: withholding the health contribution in advance and, if necessary, the taxpayer pays again for health services;
- Abuse: child's right to treatment for chronic diseases (cancer and access to day care for the disabled) restricted.
Rights limitations due to the pandemic situation:
- During the pandemic crisis, municipalities refuse to pay taxes in instalments and freeze citizens' accounts even though they are affected by the pandemic;
- Abusive termination of employment contracts;
- Discrimination between vaccinated and unvaccinated in the context of the pandemic situation;
- Obligation, in a pandemic, to stay at work for 14 days continuously, under threat of losing one's job;
- Limitation of certain rights under the argument of emergency/alert;
- Masks for children in covid schools (parents against the measure);
- Forced vaccination in institutions, under threat of job loss;
- Vaccinated feel threatened by the unvaccinated (pandemic is lengthening);
- Discrimination between vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Caring for people with disabilities:
- Social workers for people with disabilities are refused employment by municipalities, despite the relevant legislation;
- Personal social workers for people with disabilities believe that they are entitled to extra pay for difficult conditions and that they are not paid according to a scale;
- Incorrectness of the wage law 153/2017 and law 448 for people with disabilities.
Retirement rights (10%):
- Differential treatment between the majority of pensioners who are constantly being changed in the law and pensioners with special pensions who are having their rights strengthened on the grounds that the right once earned cannot be changed;
- On pensions - failure to comply with Decree No 38/1990 on the granting of certain rights to rail transport staffhttp://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocumentAfis/897);
- Failure to comply with the legislation on early retirement (Art.65 para.5. provides for early retirement without penalty for persons who have lived 30 years in mining areas - Partial early retirement | Law 263/2010 )
- Unjustified reduction of regular pensions in contradiction with special pensions;
- Non-indexation of pensions with the inflation rate.
Relations between citizens and state institutions:
- Lack of accountability of state institutions;
- Citizens who report irregularities feel persecuted and treated as criminals by institutions empowered to deliver justice;
- Lack of response from public institutions to citizens' requests;
- Violations of the following rights: the right to information, the right to a fair statement of reasons for an administrative act, the right to impartiality, fairness and proportionality when considering a request submitted by citizens to a public institution;
- Citizens are asked by state institutions to bring documents issued by other state institutions when they could retrieve them themselves (requires interconnected databases);
- Blocking of access to public information by the TAU or central institutions;
- Failure to provide answers to requests sent to public institutions (ANAF);
- Citizens are being shuttled from door to door;
- Contemptuous and/or abusive treatment of taxpayers;
- Local authorities also charge unoccupied premises for sanitation;
- Granting of building permits without respecting the rules;
- Citizens without access to technology are advised to download the institutions' forms from their websites;
- Local police fining old people who sell their own products on the street;
- Citizens fined for walking pets in parks/children not allowed on grass or roller skates (Vaslui).
Tax & ANAF Taxpayer Relations:
- Automatic enforcement imposed by the authorities on citizens who are late in paying their tax, without giving them the option of paying in instalments or late by including a penalty;
- Lack of information on taxpayers' debts to the State, ignorance of which also generates penalties because they are not paid on time;
- Abuses committed by ANAF - abusing small businesses;
- Excessive taxation of labour and all income (48% tax on labour / 10% income tax, 19% VAT on everything you buy);
- Abuse: employee penalised by ANAF for employer's non-payment 10-12 years ago.
Employee rights in public institutions:
- Discrimination in the workplace;
- Employees complain that hierarchical superiors verbally ask them to do/write various documents, although they do not have it in their job description, and those are turned against the intimidated ones because they are the ones who sign;
- Abuse of position by superiors in public institutions.
Other categories of problems and/or abuses reported in the questionnaires
- Violation of the rights to a decent living, to health and to fair justice;
- Companies deliver substandard services (gas, water, electricity) and if they stop the service they do not compensate the customer for the inconvenience, but if citizens do not pay on time they are automatically stopped and penalised;
- Non-compliance with GDPR;
- Difficulties in paying loans due to the pandemic situation;
- Combating misinformation requires time on the part of the public to become properly informed and identify false information;
- Increase in rents for state housing (to 560 lei/month);
- High school students - feel deprived of their freedom (even when they are of age, they are not allowed to leave high school);
- College of physiotherapists - abusive behaviour (lifts members' right to practice, Ministry of Health does not fulfil its duties - Min. Health but no response , although it is obliged under Law 226/2016 to take action)
- Public information is requested regarding state loans in the market and destination, i.e. reporting how loans are executed.
Significant differences between situations perceived as state abuse and potentially abusive situations
Although 74% of respondents claim and perceive that they have been victims of abuse by state institutions, a first analysis of the messages received by FACIAS from citizens shows that about 28-30% report difficulties they face, not necessarily abuse by the state, and about 10-15% report a situation of potential abuse by a state institution.
Most of the situations that respondents report as abusive do not concern collective abuses, but rather individual abuses that directly concern them.
Since the launch of the Project, FACIAS has received around 1000 messages from citizens reporting various problems they face.
A citizen's practical guide to state institutions
FACIAS provides, in episodes, a Practical Guide as a support for citizens in relation to state institutions, a text supported by current legislation. The detailed instructions can be accessed at https://www.facias.ro/proiecte-2/. The Guide has provided information in simple language on the free tools we can use in dealing with state institutions without having to go to court. Individual cases in which an individual or a legal person is affected are as follows:
- How do we know we are dealing with abuse;
- Minimum criteria to identify a potential abusive situation.
- Access to justice is provided to us by laws, through state institutions or courts.
- How we can get justice and at no cost: PETITION, COMPLAINT and PRE-APPEAL.
- How to request information of public interest, useful for our interest to prevent/fight an abuse committed by a state institution, under Law 544/2001.
- Defend, at minimal or no cost, and in court.
- Public legal aid, if we are unable to pay certain stamp or expert fees.
- The "robot" portrait of the person who is tempted/committing abuses, in his capacity as representative of the State, in relation to citizens.
- Advocacy - a basic tool in the fight against abuses of state institutions, with collective victims.
- Advocacy, in simple words, and Big Steps .
- The usefulness of an NGO partner who knows advocacy in our fight against collective abuse.
- What kind of NGO can help us in the fight against state abuse with collective victims?
- Why are NGOs a beneficial alternative in dealing with collective cases of abuse committed by state institutions?
- Steps to follow to challenge an abusively imposed fine.
- The steps we, as citizens, have to take if we want to have an input into the text of a bill when we consider it inappropriate/abusive.
- How do we properly inform ourselves and follow a bill in the Romanian Parliament?
- How do we challenge measures taken in the context of the pandemic if we consider them unfair?
- What, how, when can we do to defend students' rights in school?
- How do we inform ourselves properly to protect the rights of people with various disabilities and their carers?
- Citizens' rights in relation to unprofessional and/or abusive police officers.
- Citizens' rights in relation to unprofessional and/or abusive ANAF employees.
For collective cases, the Guide will continue to provide further practical information on additional tools that can be used.
Further information
FACIAS invites Romanians who are or have been victims of an abuse committed by state institutions or representatives of these institutions to report these abuses to FACIAS in order to solve such problems, using the following e-mail address: [email protected] or on social networks: https://www.facebook.com/faciasromania/ , https://www.instagram.com/facias.romania , https://twitter.com/faciasromania.
"Be informed, NOT abused!" supports FACIAS's efforts to prevent and combat abuse of power. The organisation represents collectives of citizens whose rights are violated by state authorities and also acts in support of them.
"For a variety of reasons, only a small part of the victims of abuse go to court, file complaints, petitions or petitions, publicise the abuse, including in the media. An informed citizen is less likely to be a victim of abuse, knows what to do and takes action. We believe that there is no democracy without accountability," FACIAS representatives say.
The Foundation for the Defence of Citizens against State Abuses (FACIAS), through its work, aims to ensure transparency in the functioning of state institutions as a principle of democracy and the rule of law and defends the rights of Romanian citizens.
The project's details can be found at www.facias.ro.
LINK TO THE VIDEO SUMMARY OF THE PUBLIC ACTIVITY REPORT, within the project, for the period April – October 2021: https://youtu.be/z24JKL_4hlc