The government approved amendments to the Regulation on the legal regime of gifts, giving a specific wording to the position “perishable products”. According to the clarification, these are products of animal and vegetable origin, as well as processed goods that spoil quickly and require special storage conditions.
“This change will help reduce the risks of subjective interpretation of permissible exemptions. Currently, the lack of a precise definition makes it difficult to assess the types of products included in this category,” Justice Minister Veronica Mihailov-Moraru said.
As the authors of the project explain, in the past there was no clear definition, and under “perishable” gifts could be considered anything – up to valuable gifts “disguised” as food. And this “could have an undue influence on the performance of public service”.
The amendments also clarify the procedure of calculating payments if the value of gifts received by an official exceeds the established annual limit of 1000 lei. Now, instead of the general term “value of the gift”, a specific wording is used – “the difference between the value of the gift established by the Commission and the annual limit”. This means that the civil servant is not obliged to pay the full value of the gift, but only the amount of the excess.
The rules on the incorruptibility warning have been introduced. If a public servant fails to report a gift or accepts an impermissible gift, this is grounds for issuing an integrity warning under the Whistleblower Law on Integrity Violations.
