The Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday adopted by 171 votes to 98 and one abstention an amendment to its own regulation, saying that officials who are requested to be heard in the parliamentary inquiry committees are compelled to come. If they refuse, the MPs are allowed to notify the criminal prosecution bodies for obstruction in finding the truth.
According to the new provisions, the inquiry committee can summon any person working in the Government or in other public administration institutions who may know about a fact or a circumstance that can help in finding the truth in a case investigated by the committee. Those people are compelled to come for hearings in the committee.
If a person refuses to come for hearings, the committee can notify the criminal prosecution bodies over the crime stipulated in article 267 of the law 286/2009 on the Criminal Code.
The invited person can also answer the committee’s request in writing, by providing the requested information or he or she can send the documents or other evidence by mail.
The deputies have practically recalled article 74 from the lower chamber’s regulation, which stipulated that the parliamentary committees cannot investigate facts or deeds that are the object of a judicial investigation or that are pending in courts.
In retort, the Liberals announced they would challenge the regulation’s amendment to the Romania’s Constitutional Court, PNL interim chairwoman Raluca Turcanu informed.
“These amendment conducted overnight by the PSD-ALDE ruling coalition have a single aim, to create a so-called legal framework for the inquiry committee probing into the 2009 presidential elections (…) There are two previous CCR rulings and a whole case law that confirm that magistrates cannot be compelled to come for hearings in the inquiry committees. PSD hasn’t understood that and it keeps striking the judiciary and the Parliament,” Turcan stated.