Transparency of Seized Assets (RO0060)

Improving transparency in the management of seized assets
2018-2019 Lead implementing agency/actor Ministry of Justice (MJ) - the National Agency for the Management of Seized Assets (ANABI) Other actors involved State actors National Agency for Fiscal Administration CSOs, private sector, multilaterals, working groups What is the public problem that the commitment will address? According to art. 40 of Law no.318/2015 for the setting up and operation of the National Agency for the Management of Seized Assets, (1) ANABI publishes in an open format and on a quarterly basis data and public interest information generated from the national integrated information system for recording proceeds of crime. (2) Until the information system is operating, the Agency publishes, on a quarterly basis, data and public interest information regarding its activities. In addition, to ensure transparency in the process of reuse of immovable property, according to art.31, (3)” the Agency publishes on its website updated information about each immovable property seized from criminal proceedings, including its legal situation, position, photographs, the date when it became private state property, as well as other relevant data”. Commitment description What is the commitment? ANABI will develop a platform that will ensure access of public institutions from the judiciary to information regarding the management of proceeds of crime. The development of such an application will increase the national institutional capacity to manage the seized assets by providing detailed and up-to-date evidence of these assets in Romania. In addition, the system will increase transparency in the debt recovery process by providing open data to the public and generating reliable statistics for tracking 30 the debt recovery process. How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? According to art. 38 para. (2) of the Law no. 318/2015, the Integrated national computer system for recording of claims arising from criminal offenses will include data on: a) the precautionary measures ordered in the criminal proceeding, administration, capitalization or return of the assets subject to these measures; b) the precautionary measure of seizure and the use of confiscated property, both in the case of special confiscation and extensive confiscation; c) the confiscation of bail, provided by art. 217 par. (5) of the Law no. 135/2010, as amended and supplemented; d) the execution of orders for the seized assets issued by another State; e) the execution of confiscation orders issued by another State; f) the disposal of confiscated goods within the meaning of Art. 265 of the Law no. 302/2004, republished, as subsequently amended or supplemented, or agreements providing for the sharing of confiscated assets; g) damages granted to the State, authorities or public institutions for the compensation of the damage caused by the commission of the offense and the execution of the provisions of the decision regarding them; h) the fine imposed as the main punishment and its execution in the manner prescribed by the law. Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values? Institutional transparency Milestone activity with a verifiable deliverable Responsible agency / partner Start Date: End Date: Develop the national integrated system for the registration of proceeds of crime. ANABI 2016-2018 NAP December 2019 31 Additional information Budget The National Integrated System is developed under the project "Supporting the Achievement of National Anti-Corruption Strategy Objectives by Increasing the Recovery of Crime Products" and benefits from funding from the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Program to reduce the economic and social disparities within the enlarged Europe. 866.021 CHF Correlation with other government programs/strategies National Anticorruption Strategy 2016-2020, Strategy for the Development of the Judiciary

13. Improving transparency in the management of seized assets

Commitment Text: "ANABI will develop a platform that will ensure access of public institutions from the judiciary to information regarding the management of proceeds of crime. The development of such an application will increase the national institutional capacity to manage the seized assets by providing detailed and up-to-date evidence of these assets in Romania. In addition, the system will increase transparency in the debt recovery process by providing open data to the public and generating reliable statistics for tracking the debt recovery process."

Milestones:

13. • Develop the national integrated system for the registration of proceeds of crime.

Start Date: National Action Plan 2016-2018 ...............................................

End Date: December 2019

Editorial Note: The commitment text is abridged. The full text can be found in the OGP 2018-2020 national action plan.

Context and Objectives

This commitment was continued from Romania’s third action plan (2016-2018). As described in the IRM progress report for the third action plan, prosecutors investigating white collar crimes freeze suspected proceeds of crime in order to confiscate them if the final conviction is issued. [123] The National Agency for the Management of Seized Assets (ANABI) was established through law 318/2015, and mandated to disclose in an open format, on a quarterly basis, how the state manages seized assets. To this end, this commitment aims to create the National Integrated Information System (SIIN) to record and manage the information required, which will clearly improve the public’s access and specialized authorities’ access to information on seized proceeds of crime. Moreover, SIIN will allow the public and the government to evaluate the performance of ANABI and the efficiency of the management of seized assets. The solution is specific enough to be verified, with the full text of the commitment providing a detailed list of the various data the platform will make available.

Although citizens can already assess the performance of ANABI from its yearly reports and from data already published on its website, [124] the topic of seized assets is difficult for the public to understand. According to an interviewed ANABI representative, SIIN will present ANABI’s data in a more intuitive way (e.g., relying on visuals and storytelling) and will help explain to the public what the seizing of assets means, why it matters, how it is conducted and by whom, etc. [125] Also, SIIN will allow the monitoring in real-time (as opposed to the current annual monitoring) and at a granular level (as opposed to what is now macro-level information) of the performance of stakeholders such as the police, public prosecution, the Ministry of Justice, and judiciary in seizing and managing seized assets. This could also generate new insights, such as trends and new leads for law enforcement. [126] As a result, this commitment has the potential to be transformative in what constitutes judicial transparency.

ANABI already modelled SIIN, in partnership with experts from the Basel Institute in Switzerland, [127] in 2018, and now moves towards a proof of work for SIIN. Nevertheless, early results suggest that finding suppliers capable to create SIIN on the basis of its earlier specifications is cumbersome. Consequently, ANABI plans to develop an in house, simplified proof-of-work in partnership with Code4Romania, to ensure that it completes this commitment on time.

Next steps

This commitment is a clear priority to ANABI. Consequently, while the simplified version of SIIN that ANABI is developing with Code4Romania would fulfill the commitment, [128] ANABI could still push to receive the necessary funding to implement the original SIIN version. 

[123] "2016-2017 IRM Progress Report on Romania", OGP, available at http://www.opengovernmentparthership.org.

[124] According to the ANABI representative, progress in the direction of increasing access to data has already been made as ANABI centralizes and presents more data on their website.

[125] Interview with Cornel Calinescu, National Agency for the Management of Seized Assets (ANABI), 2 September 2019.

[126] Interview with Cornel Calinescu, ANABI, 2 September 2019.

[127] "ANABI will have an integrated electronic system of criminal assets", ANABI, April 2016, available at http://bit.ly/2kLMLYb.

13. Improve transparency in the management of seized assets

Limited

According to the OGP repository, the National Agency for the Management of Seized Assets (ANABI) completed the tender specifications for the National Integrated Information System (SIIN) in 2019. ANABI organized two tenders to execute SIIN but neither offer was accepted. Consequently, ANABI wrote an EU co-funded project and awarded it funding for implementation from June 2020 to November 2022. [65]