Strengthening the Framework on Pre‑ and Post‑Public Employment in Romania

Executive summary

Romania has identified a need to improve its system for ensuring integrity in pre- and post-public employment in Objective 3.1 of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (Strategia Naţională Anticorupţie, NACS). While there are provisions on post-public employment in several laws applicable to different categories of public officials, there are gaps in terms of the officials and activities covered in the framework and there is no effective monitoring mechanism to ensure that public officials comply with the rules in place. This report provides recommendations to help Romania close these gaps and support implementation through guidance and capacity building.

Strengthening the legal framework on pre- and post-public employment

Romania has restrictions on post-public employment, but the existing provisions do not cover several categories of officials and types of activities that may pose high risks of an integrity breach in post-public employment. In addition, there are no specific sanctions in place for violations of post-public employment provisions that are tailored to the severity of the offence. Romania does not regulate pre-public employment, which is another high-risk area. This section, therefore, recommends the following:

• introducing legal provisions that cover the following officials: persons with top executive functions (PTEFs), management of regulatory authorities, management of state-owned enterprises, local government officials in high-risk positions, high-level officials in the Bank of Romania, high-level officials from high-risk sectors like education and health, officials representing the state or a public authority in legal proceedings and officials issuing licenses or permits

• expanding the scope of at-risk activities and behaviours covered by the regulatory framework to address, for example, interactions with a former private employer while in public service, use of insider information, granting favourable treatment in exchange for an offer of employment, switching sides in regulatory proceedings, lobbying a former public employer and certain post-judicial activities

• establishing specific proportionate sanctions for violations of pre- and post-public employment provisions for all categories of public officials, as well as for private sector entities that employ former public officials in violation of these provisions

• specifying compensation measures for former public officials whose employment prospects are excessively limited as a result of post-public employment provisions.

Ensuring clear institutional arrangements for oversight and control

The second section of this report focuses on ensuring there is a mechanism for monitoring whether pre- and post-public employment provisions are adhered to. Given its current role in monitoring compliance with provisions on conflict-of-interest management, the National Integrity Agency (ANI) would be well‑placed to fulfil this function, and a proportionate increase in resources could be allocated to ensure the ANI can exercise its new competence effectively.

This section, therefore, recommends the following:

• requiring public officials to inform the ANI of their post-public employment activities before leaving public service and for a proportionate period after leaving

• granting the ANI the competence to verify declarations of post-public employment activities in a similar manner to the verification of interest and asset declarations that it already conducts

• expanding the scope and increasing the quality of data which the ANI can access, as well as increasing information sharing between relevant institutions, to improve the effectiveness of verification

• granting the ANI the competence to forward suspicions of violations of pre- and post-public employment provisions to authorities responsible for sanctioning.

Advancing implementation through guidance and capacity building

The final section of this report focuses on supporting public officials in understanding and upholding the pre- and post-public employment provisions. To ensure that any newly adopted provisions are clearly understood and acted upon, this section recommends the following:

• revising existing codes of conduct for public officials to address the new provisions

• conducting awareness-raising campaigns about the new provisions

• granting the ANI the competence to issue voluntary advice on pre- and post-public employment to PTEFs

• strengthening the role of the ethics adviser to enable these officials to issue voluntary advice on pre- and post-public employment to other categories of officials

• issuing guidance for the private sector on compliance with pre- and post-public employment provisions.