Romanian President Basescu says governing party has credibility issues speaks on border points corruption

Romanian President Traian Basescu said in an interview published by Romania libera newspaper on Monday that the governing Democratic Liberal Party that he is linked to should exclude controversial members who are subject of corruption charges. In the same interview he spoke about the recent inquiries on corruption at Romania’s border points.

He said the governing party has a credibility issue because it failed to pass approval in the Parliament for inquiries targetting two of its members, Dan Pasat and Monica Iacob-Ridzi. He said that if it wanted to secure the necessary credibility the party should exclude the two – who are facing official inquiries – from its ranks.

The House of Deputies rejected in December 2010 a National Anti-Corruption Department request to allow a raid in the file of Monica Iacob-Ridzi and to extend the criminal investigation against her.

President Basescu also said in the Romania libera interview that he was afraid the masterminds behind a major network of corruption at Romania’s border points could be found among customs’ trade union leaders and that he did not exclude the involvement of political leaders in the border corruption schemes. He said, however, that he did not have clues about political parties looking for abusive funding in this sector.

A series of raids and arrests took place among customs officials and border police at several Romanian border points last week.