Description
Romania has made significant progress in developing efficient institutional and legal framework to fight against the corruption. The “Performance and Independence in Justice through Active and Informed Citizens” project will develop a system for evaluating the performance of anti-corruption institutions raising awareness among civil society and general public. Without control mechanisms, a democratic society is plagued by corruption. Citizens’ trust in institutions is important and their participation in the control of such institutions raises the confidence levels. Spectacular anti-corruption cases in the past years have increased the visibility of the issue on the public agenda. It is now the time for public participation designed to channel this interest towards an authentic control of institutions. The Romanian citizen and the business community will than gain objective tools to judge whether their taxes, investments have been used in a transparent manner.
Summary of project results
The project addressed two major issues on the public agenda in Romania: the fight against corruption and judiciary reform (especially the independence of the judiciary issues), that have been tackled by policy research and structured consultations, NGO’s engagement in promoting best practices in public policy and by promoting key democratic values using engaging citizens' tools. The project has proposed to identify and develop a set of indicators and targets to measure and monitor the judiciary and anticorruption performance. CRPE has identified two sets of indicators for the measurement of the judiciary performance: (A) performance-based budget management and (B) procedure for assessment of magistrates' professional activity. Two reports and policy recommendations have been published and promoted among active NGOs. A survey for the judiciary targeted an estimated number of 7,000 magistrates - public prosecutors and judges from all jurisdictions, all hierarchical levels (courts, tribunals, courts of appeal and prosecutors' offices, including the National Anticorruption Directorate). The survey targeted the professional evaluation of magistrates - a key element for the performance of the judiciary and anti-corruption fight. A key component of the project has targeted the issue of engaging citizens in defense of and respect for democratic values by providing online tools with significant exposure to public / mainstream audience. A dedicated website “Attacks on the Judiciary” (monitoring tool) has been developed; the audience and number of citizens involved exceeded the indicators proposed. Over 22,000 readers and viewers have had interactions with the website and contributed to some of the proposals in terms of sanctioning regime of those affecting the independence of the judiciary.
Summary of bilateral results