President Iohannis after CSAT sitting: Past governments have filled the country with incompetent servants. Corruption is ruining the state

President Klaus Iohannis has had a press statement after the CSAT sitting on Tuesday, arguing that the Caracal case was possible for the governments in the past years had filled the country with incompetent people and servants.

The Romanian head of state has accused the PSD-ALDE cabinets that their main purpose was to open the prisons’ gates.

“I chaired the CSAT sitting today where we analysed the Interior Ministry and STS’s reports on the manner the tragic event in Caracal had been managed. This drama shows us where the state can be taken when saving and protecting criminals are ranking first and when opening the prisons’ gates becomes the political decision-makers’ concern. The amendments of the justice laws, the retirement wave (editor note: in the police system), the compensatory appeal, they all have generated serious vulnerabilities against the national defence with dramatic consequences. We ended up here because the past governments have filled the country with too many incompetent people. Professionals have been fired and they named incapacitated people instead,” the President pointed out.

He added that securing the safety of the citizen must be the top priority of the political class.

“The citizen must regain his confidence in the state and in the institutions, and a first mandatory step is that those who are not doing their jobs to be kicked out of the system for good”, Iohannis underlined.

“Corruption and incompetence are ruining the state”, he further stressed.

The head of state said that the STS and MAI reports on the Caracal murder case had revealed serious deficiencies, including the hidebound attitude of the police officers towards the victim. Iohannis named the delays in searching and saving Alexandra as “murderous”.

A 15-year-old girl who was hitchhiking to reach her home in a village was kidnapped and raped by a 66-year-old man. After being arrested, the man confessed to murdering Alexandra, as well as another 18yo girl from a a village nearby, who has been reported missing since April. The local authorities’ delayed intervention, although the 15yo girl had called 112 emergency number three times asking for help has prompted huge public anger and protests.

“Although the girl’s disappearance was reported on July 24 at 20;30hrs, searches were unjustifiably delayed, kicking off only on the next morning, July 25 at 08:30hrs,” President Iohannis said, also mentioning the investigators did not comply with the internal procedures on reporting and monitoring such events, and neither with the protocol on triggering the national mechanism “Child Kidnapping Alert”.

Klaus Iohannis has also slammed the low reaction speed of the authorities, the lack of IT and communication technical devices and the employee’s lack of training.

The President has urged the Government to draft a series of measures by the end of August, such as:

“Rapid response procedures and correlation among all involved institutions, including prosecutor’s offices to prevent the murderous delays in the state’s actions like the ones in Caracal case. I also asked the Government to review as a matter of urgency the existing laws on serious and very serious crimes, especially when the victims’ lives, freedom and body integrity are affected and to also analyse the current 112 emergency service. Stricter procedures must be identified regarding the way 112 operators should grant support to all those in need”, Iohannis said.