ROMANIA

PUBLIC MINISTRY

PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE ATTACHED TO THE HIGH COURT OF CASSATION AND JUSTICE

Proposals of the Public Ministry on the need for the prosecutor offices’ specialists to carry out technical - scientific findings in taxation, finance and accounting.

The Public Ministry filed during 2010 the Ministry of Justice a set of proposals for measures to be taken from the prospect of criminal activities and to fulfill the recommendations of the European Commission Report on the Cooperation and Monitoring Mechanism for changing the normative frame to allow the employment within the prosecutor’s offices of the specialists to perform technical - scientific findings in the taxation, finance and accounting field.

In the context of regional meetings held during 2010 which focused on the practice of judicial combat tax evasion, one of the main impediments identified by participants in addressing these causes was the long and high cost of surveys conducted in fiscal, financial and accounting field.

These obstacles could be avoided with minimal additional resources, if the prosecutor’s offices would have to carry out their findings by their own experts, following the investigative strategy and granting the resources necessary to carry out further based on their findings.

In the context in which the fight against tax evasion represents a priority assumed by the Decision of the Supreme Council of National Defense no. 69/2010 we believe that such a measure would make more productive the intervention of authorities in this field. Experience of the specialized structures in the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, DIICOT and DNA, show that the use of their own specialists leads to limiting the number of cases where an expertise is ordered, the result is reducing the period in which the cases are resolved, limiting legal costs and a higher finality of the causes.

When introducing the principle of opportunity in the new Criminal Procedure Code, the use of specialist’s knowledge enables the prosecution organism to evaluate prior to making an expertise, the amount of damage produced in a case, the resources involved in the administration rules of evidence and the ability to recover damages in order to appreciate in full awareness the public interest.
Also, bear in mind that according to the new Criminal Procedure Code there can only be used specialists within the judicial bodies, as regulated by current legislation, being eliminated the possibility to call on specialists from other organisms.

In 2009 the prosecutor’s offices attached to courts, tribunals and courts of appeal have solved 6858 cases covering crimes of tax evasion, which ordered the prosecution of 493 defendants. Statistics for the first three quarters of 2010 show that the number of defendants prosecuted almost doubled, while the value of goods on which precautionary measures have been established by these units has increased about 25 times. Evolution of activity, which we expect will have the same trend in the following period, justifies the classification of a prosecutor’s office specialist within each prosecutor’s office attached to the tribunal and court of appeal and within the Prosecutor's Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice to simplify the work of judicial organisms.

Given these arguments, we request that in compliance to Art. 134 par. 1 of Law no. 304/2004 there will be made a proposition to the Government supplementing the maximum number of positions for prosecutors with 60 positions of specialists and in compliance to Art. 135 par. 1 of Law no. 304/2004 to have an appropriate adjustment of the staffing schedules and personnel for the prosecutor’s offices.