A Romanian Submitted Nearly 17,000 Petitions About a Single Issue to One Institution Within a Year

Approximately 300,000 petitions were handled at the level of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2022, according to a statement sent on Saturday.

“Last year, the General Secretariat Directorate within the Central Apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs received and managed 13,529 petitions. Citizens mainly submitted petitions in electronic format, either through the forms on the institution’s website or through electronic mail. regarding the way of resolving petitions, 91.5% were managed by structures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (including from the Central Apparatus of the institution, such as the Minister’s Control Body, the General Directorate of Human Resources Management, the Department for Emergency Situations and the Directorate Medical), the rest being redirected to other institutions”, the institution sent.

The representatives of the MAI also say that “the public relations activity also included the activity of advising citizens, which was carried out through the operators who serve the free telephone line of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – 0800 800 624, which can be called, every working day, in the time interval 08.00-20.00. The TEL-VERDE line is intended for information, advice and reporting of non-urgent matters, within the competence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 2022, 1,769 calls were received. Also, officers from The Public Relations Service advised a number of 295 people who presented themselves at the institution’s headquarters”.

The main categories of requests from citizens or legally established organizations concerned the commission of crimes against the person or property, disturbance of public order and peace, requests for possession and issuance of property titles, requests for admissions, re-admissions, etc. There were also numerous situations of submitting hundreds of petitions regarding aspects already verified and for which an answer was submitted, the formulation of bizarre or illogical requests, frequent calls to the Tel-Verde telephone line with the same aspects and for which an answer was already provided.

A citizen sent, in the course of a single year, 16,900 petitions on the same subject to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prefect’s institution in Argeș county.

Bizarre requests of the Romanians: – the requests sent by a gentleman who, in his opinion, is the direct descendant of a ruler of Moldova and, as a consequence, the entire historical region of Moldova must belong to him; – the case of a person who claims that he does not recognize the authority of the Romanian state and uses a strand of hair and a fingerprint for identification; – a citizen submitted several petitions in which he reported possible dysfunctions at the level of some structures of the MAI, and later announced that he resigned from the position he held within the MAI and requested the transfer of the amount of money corresponding to the salary received during this period for work performed, although in reality he was never employed in our institution.

“Last year, at the level of the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police, approximately 260,000 petitions were registered and managed. Citizens sent petitions by post, e-mail, fax, direct submission to the headquarters of the Romanian Police or by completing the form send an online petition, which can be accessed from the website (www.politiaromana.ro)”, the document also states.

The Romanian Border Police managed, in 2022, 7,924 petitions, their number being 54.4% lower compared to the previous year as a result of the termination of the measures ordered in the context of the pandemic. 98.6% of the petitions submitted last year referred to the conditions for crossing the state border of Romania.

Also, over 64,700 calls were received on the “9590” telephone line, the callers being advised on issues related to the state border regime, the regime of foreigners in Romania, travel conditions, etc.

In 2022, at the level of the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations, 7,403 petitions were registered, and at the level of the Romanian Gendarmerie, 4,692 petitions were received and managed.

Likewise, the General Anticorruption Directorate registered, last year, 3,076 petitions, and the General Inspectorate for Immigration managed over 2,620 petitions.