Accession to Schengen, sabotaged by the heads of Customs

The full accession to the Schengen area of our country seems to be sabotaged by the heads of the Customs, but also by the staff at certain border crossing points, as demonstrated yesterday by the prosecutors of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate who ordered the detention of Paul Petrof, the head of the Bucharest Regional Customs Directorate , whom he accuses of taking bribes.

According to the press release issued by DNA, Paul Petrof is accused of committing the crimes of favoring the perpetrator, of using, in any way, directly or indirectly, information that is not intended for publicity or allowing unauthorized persons access to this information, and of bribery. Along with him, six other customs officials are being prosecuted for acts of corruption.

The DNA prosecutors show that Paul Petrof's subordinates, in the context of carrying out some controls during the past year, would have claimed and received from several businessmen who carried out their activity in several shopping centers located within the radius of the city of Bucharest and the county of Ilfov improper benefits consisting of total amounts of 60,600 lei, 11,500 dollars, 600 euros, 408 pairs (51 bax) of sports shoes and 1,000 counterfeit perfumes. The said money would have been claimed and received for the purpose of omitting to draw up a criminal complaint regarding the problems found and implicitly completing the controls in a way that is favorable to the businessmen.

The DNA press release also states: "During the day of January 10, 2024, in order to complicate the investigations that were being carried out in a criminal case, the defendants Petrof Paul and Stamatescu Răzvan-Cosmin allegedly presented to a businessman the content of an order issued by the police officers from the IGPR - Economic Crime Investigation Directorate, through which various documents were requested in relation to some companies controlled by the person in question. In the period 2021-2023, the defendant Stamatescu Răzvan-Cosmin would have accepted from another businessman the promise of remitting an amount of USD 10,000 and would have received several undue benefits to traffic his alleged influence that he would have allowed to it is believed that he would have it on some border policemen and that he would cause them to not fulfill their duties in connection with carrying out controls on shipments of counterfeit goods, in which the person concerned was concerned. In the same period, the defendant Petrof Paul allegedly demanded from a businessman the payment of an advance in the amount of 50,000 euros for the purchase of an apartment and other improper benefits, in exchange for the "help" offered to the latter in connection with obtaining some authorizations".

The activity of the Romanian Customs Authority last year also displeased the Minister of Finance, Marcel Boloş, who announced on December 30, 2023 that he would ask Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu to dismiss the head of Customs. The change in the position of president of AVR took place on January 18, 2024, when Ion Cupă was replaced by Marcel Mutescu. Alexandru Dudu was appointed vice-president of the Romanian Customs Authority, and Daniel Nache became general secretary.

Moreover, in order to carefully check the destination of the goods entering our country from the third countries of the European Union, the Government decided last year through Law 296/2023 to introduce the RO e-Seal system, which will allow traffic monitoring of trucks in transit such as and those who have a point of destination in our country. The system would be operational by the end of 2024, with AVR purchasing 2,000 electronic seals in the first phase. At the same time, in order to monitor the intra-community transport of goods, by the same law the Government decided to generalize the use of Ro e-Transport for goods from the European Union that arrive in our country, unlike the use of Ro e-Transport for internal transports only for goods that present fiscal risk picked up.

The problems at the border crossing points are not only the fault of the Customs officials, but also the employees of the National Road Infrastructure Administration Company. Thus, two days ago, the General Anticorruption Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior announced that 46 officials out of the 61 employees of the Nădlac II Control and Collection Agency are suspected of bribery. More precisely, the officials would have demanded a bribe from the truck drivers to allow them to cross into Hungary with a weight greater than that allowed by law, i.e. more than 40 tons. According to some judicial sources cited by G4Media, the bribe amounted to around 100-150 euros per official, per shift, which meant a considerable monthly amount for each official, in addition to the salary received from the state budget. The DGA allegedly started the investigation in May of last year, based on a press material that appeared on the investigative website Recorder, which disclosed the corruption network in several customs where the truck drivers bribed the employees of the control and collection points (ACI) of the CNAIR, and the border policemen facilitated the passage of the transporters without standing in long queues.