The Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), a non-profit association, came forward on Thursday 26 January with clarifications in the context of the information published online about the criminal complaint of Eugen Rurac, candidate for the position of Chief Prosecutor of the Office of the Prosecutor for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCCS), regarding the access by the organisation to its data on real estate.

According to a statement by the organization, the information distributed, including on anonymous Telegram channels, regarding Iulian Groza, the executive director of IPRE, as well as to the think-tank, “uncovers part of the intimidation intentions against Iulian Groza as a member of the special pre-selection commission of candidates for the position of chief prosecutor of PCCOCS”.

“These actions were at the basis of the complaint submitted by Iulian Groza to the members of the Superior Council of Prosecutors”, IPRE notes, in the context of Groza’s statements that “this competition must be cancelled”.

Thus, the Institute provided details “on the circumstances that led to the erroneous access to data on the real estate assets of some individuals between June and July 2022″.

According to the press release, during May-August 2022, a team of experts contracted by IPRE allegedly carried out research, the subject of which was the independent integrity assessment of candidates for judges for membership of the SCM and prosecutors for membership of the PSC respectively.

“As part of the research methodology, the experts were to verify the correctness of the declaration of declared real estate assets mentioned in the last 5 years in the declarations of assets and personal interests of the prosecutors and judges subject to evaluation (…) IPRE concluded a contract with the Public Services Agency for access to the web service of the real estate cadastre. In this context, the responsible person was appointed, on the basis of a service contract signed with IPRE, as the sole user of the web service of the real estate cadastre, who was in charge, from June to July 2022, of verifying the real estate information for the verification/confirmation of the real estate owned by the subjects of the evaluation, in compliance with the personal data protection rules.

After completion of the research and publication of the reports, IPRE has established that the expert contracted as the sole user of the web service, erroneously accessed the real estate data in the work process which did not concern the research subjects. According to the expert’s statement, he had erroneously accessed the data by entering it into the search engine of the cadastre’s web service using an electronic robot application for automatic access. The user informed that the erroneous access was detected at the end of the work process, and all the erroneously accessed information was deleted from the access list without being analysed or processed by him,” the NGO claims.

IPRE also notes that it would have “taken all internal measures” to check the single user’s work process and sanction him for the incident.

“None of the third party IPRE members, including the management and researchers who worked on the independent evaluation reports, had access to the information accessed by the single user, both for research purposes and erroneously accessed data. The contracted expert was the only person who had access to the cadastre web service. IPRE regrets and apologises to the persons who were affected by the erroneous access to real estate data,” the statement added.

Former SIS officer and current acting head of the National Anti-Corruption Centre’s (CNA) General Directorate of Criminal Prosecution, Eugeniu Rurac, is said to have asked acting Prosecutor General Ion Munteanu to initiate a criminal case on the violation of the inviolability of personal life, with the identification of the IPRE official “who illegally collected information on his personal life”, according to a 26 January document published on a Telegram channel.

“Given that at the time of the IPRE official’s access to my personal data, I was an employee of the Intelligence and Security Service and was part of several criminal prosecution groups on resonant cases, I consider it appropriate to investigate whether possibly my data was accessed and transmitted at the request of foreign special services or representatives of criminal organizations,” the document, which was allegedly signed by Rurac, reads.

ZdG reported on how several people are calling for the annulment of the competition to fill the post of head of the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS). Each has their reasons.

For example, prosecutor Eduard Bulat, who was one of the deputies of former acting Prosecutor General Dumitru Robu, is asking to be appointed as chief prosecutor of the PCCOCS without a competition.

At the same time, Iulian Groza, who is a member of the special pre-selection commission of candidates for the post of head of the PCCOCS, announced that he had referred to the Superior Council of Prosecutors (SCP) some “attempts by some interested persons to exert intimidation and pressure on him”.

His announcement came a few days after one of the candidates for the head of the institution, Eugen Rurac, sent a request to the Council asking for Groza’s exclusion from the Commission.