The court rejected the Ombudsman’s claims of unconstitutionality on which it debated on July 10.
After hearing the court ruling, ICR president Horia-Roman Patapievici said the institute’s management team is set to resign as soon as it tackles some financial issues due to a cut in the institute’s budget.
The Finance Ministry has recently informed the institute that it will be subject to a series of changes, which include reducing its budget by 14.5 million lei (EUR3.17 million). Under the circumstances, the ministry asked the institute to carefully manage the remaining RON28.5 million stipulated in the institute’s budget approved at the end of 2011. The institute, however, said it spent the money on various ongoing projects and it will have to operate with a budget hole of RON500,000 in order to comply with the ministry’s request.
On June 13, the Romanian Government adopted an emergency decree whereby the institute was to be transferred from the authority of the head of the state into that of the Senate which appoints, within 15 days at the latest, both the institute’s operative management and its board members.
The institute’s operative management will be ensured by a president, in rank of state secretary, assisted by two vice-presidents appointed and dismissed by the Senate’s plenum, at the proposition of the Senate’s standing office. The mandate of the vice-presidents will run for four years and can be renewed.
Prime Minister Victor Ponta has recently said the institute is “over politicized” and denounced the “lack of transparency” as regards its spending public money. (EUR1=RON4.5694)