Dissatisfied with the appointment of the new head, five prosecutors from DNA Constanţa resigned

• The Territorial Service was left with two prosecutors, and the five who resigned are to work within the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Constanţa Court • Their resignation comes under conditions where, on Monday, at the DNA balance sheet, Chief Prosecutor Marius Voineag complained about the lack of staff in territory • During this time, at the national level, DNA has 3,064 pending outstanding files

The Constanţa Territorial Service of the National Anticorruption Directorate was "destructed" after five of the seven prosecutors submitted their resignations following the decision of Marius Voineag, chief prosecutor of the DNA, to delegate the leadership of the prosecution structure to prosecutor Mihail Stanciu, former head of the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Constanţa Court. The resignation would take effect on May 7, 2024, until which time the respective positions could be filled with prosecutors from other prosecution structures who would like to be part of the DNA.

The resigners Andrei Bodean, Ciprian Bodu, Vasile Abagiu and Constantin Conortos and Dan Haralambie did not want to comment on the decision made, but according to judicial sources cited by Info Sud-Est, their action comes after they notified the Prosecutors Section of the Superior Council of the Magistracy (CSM) regarding the fact that they were not consulted and did not have priority in the appointment to the head of DNA Constanţa.

We mention that previously the prosecutor Andrei Bodean was changed from the position of head of the territorial structure, because the chief prosecutor of the DNA, Marius Voineag, considered that there were too many acquittals in the files instrumented by DNA Constanţa. Despite this aspect, according to an interview given to the mass media and quoted by G4Media, Marius Voineag stated that he would have proposed to Andrei Bodean to advance professionally and accept a leadership position in the central structure of DNA.

Following the resignation of the five prosecutors, the Constanţa DNA Territorial Service remains only with the new chief prosecutor Mihai Stanciu - appointed by Marius Voineag, with the judicial prosecutor Nadia Zlate (who represents the institution in court, does not work on cases), with the clerks and the judicial police.

Mihai Stanciu, the new chief prosecutor of DNA Constanţa, told the quoted media sources that he "respects the decision of his colleagues", and the head of DNA, Marius Voineag, thanked them for the entire activity.

According to some judicial sources cited by Info Sud-Est, the five prosecutors who are leaving DNA Constanţa would be employed in the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Constanţa Court, a prosecutor's office structure that registers a large shortage of prosecutors.

As for the new head of DNA Constanţa, Mihai Stanciu, the cited sources show that Marius Voineag's favorite has not had any serious case in all the years since he has been active in various prosecution structures, unlike Andrei Bodean, who orchestrated a part of the criminal files of Nicuşor Constantinescu, Radu Mazăre, ÎPS Teodosie - Archbishop of Tomis and the mayor of Constanţa, Vergil Chiţac.

The resigned Andrei Bodean participated in the magistrates' protests against PSD's abusive modification of justice laws in the period 2017-2019 and ran for the headship of DNA in 2018, in the procedure opened by the former Minister of Justice Tudorel Toader. Bodean was investigated by the Special Section for abusive research, later the files were closed. According to the activity reports published by the DNA, after the prosecutor

The resignation of the five prosecutors within the DNA comes after on Monday, at the presentation of the balance sheet of the activity for the past year, the chief prosecutor Marius Voineag boasted that he managed to hire 29 new prosecutors, "without taking into account the last procedure through which 23 were validated of new prosecutors, at the beginning of this year (ed. - 2024)".

From the activity report posted on the DNA website, we note that on December 31, 2023, the prosecutor's office had 195 positions of prosecutors, of which 146 were filled. The head of the DNA, Marius Voineag states that in 2023 there was positive regarding the human resource, in view of the fact that 36 prosecutors were hired and 34 prosecutors left the system, of which 16 through termination of activity within the respective prosecution department, 3 through termination of delegation, 14 through retirement and one following death .

"To ensure the performance of the activity under appropriate conditions, 39 delegations were requested for positions of prosecutors, of which 13 in executive positions and 26 in management positions", Marius Voineag also states in the cited report, but without the DNA's chief prosecutor specify how many of the requested delegations have been approved.

In this context above and with the new departures from DNA Constanţa, we are curious what will happen to the 3,064 cases unsolved at the end of last year - according to the activity report of the DNA, a number that is anyway lower than the 3,295 files that remained unresolved at the end of 2022, files to which new ones should be added, following the reports and self-reports during the year 2024. With a human resource in the red and with the departure of some prosecutors from the territorial structures, it is hard to believe that the DNA will soon have a positive result regarding the settlement of outstanding cases.