Istoric ALAC
Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre /ALAC is an institutional project of the Transparency International network for Southern Europeand operates within an independent department of Transparency Internaţional Romania.
In Romania, the center starts to work from 2003, funded by Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany through the Anti-Corruption Initiative of the Stability Pact in Europe (SPAI).
Since 2014, the Center has been implementing the project “Speak Up II” ”Engaging Citizens in fighting corruption in Southern Europe”, funded by DG Home, funding line Home/2012/SEC/AG which also takes place in Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Cyprus.
What the Center does for you?
For victims or witnesses of corruption acts and whistleblowers:
- Offers information, advice and judiciary assistance;
- Supports citizens' efforts in reporting corruption;
- Assists the citizens in front of competent authorities;
- Transmits cases to competent authorities;
- Monitors the resolution of reported cases.
What the Center does NOT do
- It does not speak instead of criminal investigation bodies (Police, Courts etc);
- It does not replace the courts;
- It does not substitute for lawyer activity;
- It does not represents claims in court;
- It does not carry out research or expertise.
Project services
Providing information, counseling and judiciary assistance, respecting the competence of the Center, as it is inserted on the association's website, specialized services for whistleblowers.
To whom does this project address?
To all the citizens who have been witnesses or victims of corruption offenses, as well as whistleblowers.
What are the targeted crimes?
- Taking bribes - art 289 from Penal Code;
- Bribery – art 291 from Penal Code;
- Influence peddling – art. 292 from Penal Code;
- Buying influence – art. 292 from Penal Code;
- Conflict of interests - art. 301 from Penal Code;
- Crimes related to public procurement or made under this regime from public funds;;
- Crimes provided by Law no. 78/2000 - as amended and supplemented(Example : Taking bribes and bribery - art.7- when the person who committed it is exercising a public dignity function; is judge or prosecutor, criminal investigation body or with attributions for establishing and sanctioning contraventions; art.13 ind.2 - Abuse of power or Usurpation of official functions if the civil servant obtained for himself or for another one undue benefits, crimes that prejudice the financial interests of the European Union; provided by art. 18 ind.1-3, art. 18 ind.1 - use or presentation with bad faith of false, inaccurate or incomplete documents or statements, if the act has the effect of misappropriating funds from the general budget of the European Union or the ones administered by EU, or on his behalf; the omission with knowledge to provide the required data by law to obtain funds from the EU general budget or the ones administered by EU, or on his behalf; art. 18 ind.2 - changing the destination of funds from the EU budget without complying with the legal rules or the ones administered by EU, or on his behalf; the change of the destination of a legal benefit obtained without respecting the legal provisions, if the act has the effect of illegally diminishing the resources of the general budget of the EU or those administered by it or on its behalf; art. 18 ind.3 - the use or misrepresentation of false or inaccurate or incomplete documents, resulting in an illegal diminution of the resources to be transferred to the EU general budget or to those administered by it or on its behalf.)
Examples of situations compatible with the Center's work:
- The traffic agent does not conclude a Procès-verbal on the finding and sanctioning a contravention, in return of requesting and accepting a sum of money.
- A lawyer asks his client a fee he claims to share with the police officer, judge, prosecutor that will solve the case.
- A citizen has a civil or penal process in court and he does not have very high chances to win. To be sure of success he is giving a sum of money, an object or a service to the judge or a member of the panel. The given solution in question is favorable to that citizen. Even if the court's appeal solution validates the court decision, the act of corruption exists from the point of view of the acceptance of the respective amount of money, whereas magistrate receives the money / other benefits, beyond the legal ones.
- Refusal of an official / registrar to issue a certificate, authorization, reply within the legal deadline represents an abusive exercise of service duties.
- The same legal nature has the deed of the person legally entitled/ policeman to detain a citizen beyond the statutory time or over the term mentioned in the preventive arrest warrant issued by the judge.
Rules
Completing the on-line intimation form with: personal data, description of the situation, the problem of corruption:
- The description of the reported deed can not exceed the allocated space. That is why you must present the facts briefly, chronologically, following the relevant issues, without subjective judgment.
- Only copies of the relevant documents will be attached to supporting the request (scanned in PDF, maximum size 2M/folder attached)
- All fields in the form are required and must be filled in.
If additional information is needed to clarify the case, these will be required to you by the counselor who took the referral..
Documents so received will be kept in the Center archive for one year from the date of the last correspondence sent to you..
Respecting the competence of the Center as it is inserted on the website of the Romanian Association for Transparency; The Center can not substitute any administrative or judicial jurisdiction in the substance of the case, but provides information, guides, conveys, advises, monitors, supports public positions without substituting lawyer's work.
In this way, respecting the confidentiality of the collaboration (in the event that the referral is deemed to be the responsibility of the Center) will be sent for completion and a "confidentiality agreement" signed.
Frequent questions
1.What is ALAC?
ALAC is an independent department within the pale of Transparency International Romania, nongovernmental organization, whose mission is to promote the integrity system in a spirit of solidarity in order to diminish corruption through support accorded to victims/ witnesses of corruption, as well as whistleblowers.
2. May ALAC represents me in court??
The Center can not substitute any administrative or judicial jurisdiction in the substance of the case, but took into account the observance of procedural rights and other rules on the conduct of investigations in the analysis.
3. What is corruption?
Corruption is, in fact, abusive use of the power entrusted to us to satisfy personal interests.
4. What it is understood by the term "public"?
According to art.176 of the Penal Code, “public” represents all public authorities, public institutions or other legal entities that manage or exploit public property.
5. What is a civil servant?
Civil servant, in the sense of penal law –art. 175 C.P.- is (1) the person who, on a permanent or temporary basis, with or without remuneration: a) exercises attributions and responsibilities established under the law in order to achieve the prerogatives of the legislative, executive or judicial power; b) performs a public dignity or a public office of any kind; c) exercise alone or together with other persons, within an autonomous corporation, other economic operator or a legal person with full or majority state ownership, attributions related to the achievement of its objective of activity; (2) the person exercising a public interest service for which he or she has been invested by the public authorities or is subject to their control or oversight of the performance of that public service;
6. What is a whistleblower?
A whistleblower is, according to the nr. 571/2004 Law, the person who makes a warning in the public interest and is assigned to one of the public authorities, public institutions or other public sector entities.ăţi din sectorul public.
7. What is a warning in the public interest?
Warnings in the public interest means a good faith belief in any act that involves a violation of law, professional ethics or the principles of good administration, efficiency, effectiveness, economy and transparency.
8. What kind of crime the Center does NOT handle?
The Center does not deal with other violations of law and your rights, such as negligence in service, judiciary error, incompetence, non-compliance with court rulings, labor dispute, property dispute, possession disorder, etc. but only for acts of corruption or abuse in the public sector.