FBI to Train Anti-corruption Prosecutors in Romania

Anti-corruption prosecutors in Romania will receive training from FBI specialists. This will be accomplished through specialized programs to improve the central anti-corruption institution in Romania, DNA, to gather evidence to identify and prosecute criminals.

Without naming specific techniques to be used, the institution only refers to “special investigative techniques” and “innovative technologies.”

For the DNA – National Directorate for Anticorruption to fulfill its mission of fighting corruption at a high level, a central point of the managerial vision is efficiently using the organization’s resources to reach its performance potential. In achieving this goal, the FBI will support the Directorate through professional training programs in the use of special investigative techniques and methods and innovative technologies.

National Directorate for Anticorruption press release

We can understand that “innovative technologies” might mean certain technologically advanced types of intercepting electronic communication and recording ambiental discussions, but also techniques of gathering evidence from various open and closed sources.

Recently, DNA published a tender for buying advanced software meant to intercept and decode information exchanged over some of the so-called “secured platforms,” such as Telegram and Whatsapp. This might be linked to the training the prosecutors will receive.

There might be a catch here, though. There was a time when the Romanian Intelligence Service signed an inter-agency cooperation protocol with the DNA, and that was seen as a transgression of the state powers separation by the political class and the Romanian society. Now an agency from the US collaborates with anti-corruption prosecutors and implements “innovative technologies.” It’s interesting how this will be seen by the same society that blamed the interference of the national intelligence on the prosecutors’ job.

On the other hand, corruption is still seen as a pandemic in Romania, and decades of fighting it have slightly improved how other European nationals refer to Romania. From this perspective, anti-corruption actions should be helped in all legal ways until this phenomenon diminishes.