The head of the National Anti-Corruption Centre (NAC) Iulian Rusu spoke on Friday, 12 May, from the rostrum of Parliament, about how leaks of information to the press take place and what measures need to be applied to reduce the phenomenon of leaks. Iulian Rusu said that within the institution he heads, the circle of people who know about a specific case has been reduced to a maximum and said it is important to fight leaks at the prosecutor’s office level as well.

On 12 May, NAC Director Iulian Rusu presented to Parliament the activity report of the institution he heads for the year 2022. Asked by Action and Solidarity Party MEP Olesea Stamate about how the NAC fights press leaks and whether it has conducted internal investigations on these cases, Iulian Rusu said that data leaks can occur from different authorities, employees or public agents.

“Information can be leaked by the very people who bring this information through anonymous sources. This is possible because someone may want to victimise themselves. We have no way of knowing whether there is such a purpose on the part of a person writing the anonymous tip-off. The second situation is when information is leaked by an authority, different from the NAC, which brings the given information to our attention and describes the circumstances in more detail. It is not necessarily in the interest of the person from another authority, another employee, officer or public agent, but discussions, people talk among themselves, some try to show that they are more important than others, and this data very quickly leaks out and subsequently ends up where it ends up,” Rusu said.

The head of the NAC says that in order to reduce the phenomenon of data leaks, the circle of people who know a concrete cause has been reduced to a maximum.

“What we have done inside the NAC to diminish the phenomenon of data leaks. First of all the circle of people who know the concrete cause, it is diminished to the maximum. You can count them on one hand. Their number is counted on the fingers of one hand. Secondly, all the computers, all the devices that are within the NAC are monitored and now more advanced software is being developed, how and under what conditions certain information is accessed, so that we can establish the links. Already for a very long time there has been the record of people going in and out of the NAC, as well as the surveillance cameras inside and outside that show who and when they move and how they move.

In addition, it is important to fight leaks at the prosecutorial level as well. (…) Regarding the courts – I think that the best solution is a secure channel for the transmission of warrants, which is information in the form of encrypted electronic files that can be opened with the electronic key of only the judge who received the warrant to exclude court secretaries, even clerks,” Rusu said.

On 12 May, NAC Director Iulian Rusu presented to Parliament the activity report of the institution he heads for 2022.

The NAC report for 2022, presented to the Parliament plenary. Iulian Rusu: “Relations with PA and PG are unclear lately”

The National Anti-Corruption Centre is a body specialised in preventing and combating corruption, corruption-related acts and acts of corrupt behaviour. The Centre is fully funded from the state budget, is apolitical, independent in its work and is subject only to the law. Iulian Rusu was appointed to the position of Director of the NAC in early February 2022. Previously, he was Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice.