The reduction of the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) jurisdiction will make the Romanian society more vulnerable, chief prosecutor Crin Bologa said on Tuesday, during his hearing for a new mandate, adding that he found a „massive” drop in documenting tax evasion cases from the moment the institution no longer has the jurisdiction to work on such cases, according to Agerpres.

„It will make society more vulnerable to reduce the jurisdiction not for DNA, but for the role and purpose of the DNA in our society. The Romanian society became more vulnerable at the very moment we lost jurisdiction in handling tax evasion case, although we do have specialized prosecutors, a complete and complex structure. The regulations do not allow us to protect the national funds to the same extent as the European funds. Also, because of the almost total decriminalization of the abuse of office, we asked to be given jurisdiction over embezzlement, but under certain conditions, when we are dealing with big cases, such as: more than 200,000 euros in damage committed by persons who have the capacity provided for in Article 13. So, the vulnerability is not ours, it belongs to the Romanian society, because it does not use a structure like DNA to the maximum,” explained Bologa, during his hearing at the Ministry of Justice.

He mentioned that he found a „massive” reduction in the investigation of tax evasion cases, after the DNA lost jurisdiction over such cases.

„I found that since the DNA lost its jurisdiction over tax evasion, there are no longer any important tax evasion files. Tax evasion is documented by the police bodies under the supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Court. They don’t have our specialists, they don’t have a technical service, while our prosecutors are professionally trained. We found that there is a massive drop in the documenting of tax evasion cases and the prosecution for these facts, although a lot of tax evasion can be found around us,” Crin Bologa said.

The two candidates for the position of chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate – Crin Bologa, and Marius Ionut Voineag, a prosecutor within the DNA – hold their hearings, on Tuesday, in front of a commission led by the Minister of Justice, Catalin Predoiu.

Agerpres