President Iohannis challenges the new law of public servants at the Constitutional Court

President Klaus Iohannis sent a notice of unconstitutionality to the Constitutional Court over the law for the modification and completion of Law 188/1999 regarding the status of public servants.

The law proposed in November by the UDMR party and given a favourable vote by PSD-ALDE allows public servants who were criminally indicted to stay in their jobs, eliminating the possibility of them being suspended.

President Iohannis mentions that the repeal of the suspension of the public servant in case of an indictment is contrary to several provisions of the Constitution.

Iohannis added that in its jurisprudence, the Constitutional Court has retained that the sanction of suspending the public servant’s work contract after an indictment has the purpose of protecting the authority or the public institution against the danger of the continuation of the illicit activity and the extension of the dangerous consequences of the criminal act taken by the public servant.

He also claims that, considering the administrative nature of this measure, “the issue of not upholding the presumption of innocence is not applicable, but this principle does need to be upheld during the development of the criminal case against the public servant, until the final conviction sentence has been given out”.

President Iohannis adds that, because the public function involves certain attributions and responsibilities, established through law, with the purpose of achieving the prerogatives of public power, the standards regarding the integrity and deontology of the public servant must be established so that the criminal acts done by the servant during public service would not reflect upon the public institution.