Title: Romanian Government Extends Foreign Intelligence Service Powers  

Document Number: FBIS-EEU-2001-1203
Document Date: 03 Dec 2001
Sourceline: EUP20011203000152 Bucharest Evenimentul Zilei in Romanian 03 Dec 01
p 6 
Language: Romanian 
Subslug: Report by Nicoleta Savin and Ondine Ghergut: "SIE Limited" 

[FBIS Translated Text]     Holiday Gifts From the Government to Spies 

    The government has amended and completed an emergency ordinance 
amending the law on the organization and functioning of the Foreign 
Intelligence Service (SIE).   The ordinance, approved at the 21 November 
government meeting, was published in Monitorul Oficial [Official Gazette] 
on 29 November.   The most important amendments made to the law, 
originally passed by parliament in 1998, refer to financing the SIE from 
extra-budgetary sources and to the authority this service now has to 
establish and use undercover companies.   The new regulations allow the 
SIE to obtain funds -- which is praiseworthy considering the austere 
budget -- but they do not say a word about controlling such operations.   
In other words, the ordinance limits parliamentary control over the SIE 
because it is almost impossible to check the use of funds that do not 
come from the budget.   The new law offers the SIE extended powers in 
intelligence gathering and in hiding its own activity from key state 
institutions. 

    Allowed To Make "Gray" Money 

    The ordinance approved by the Adrian Nastase cabinet solves a severe 
SIE problem -- financing.   The SIE has repeatedly complained of not 
having sufficient funds, but lawmakers after 1990 never approved the use 
of extra-budgetary funds.   The current government gave the green light 
for using such sources, without mentioning them by name.   More, the 
ordinance does not provide for any control over such operations.   In the 
old law, SIE activity was financed out of the budget, and "the planning, 
record-keeping, and use of the funds was established by the CSAT [Country 
Supreme Defense Council]."   Beyond extra-budgetary sources, the 
ordinance also provides for other ways of making money: the SIE can 
receive and manage assets that are the state's public or private 
property; it can rent these assets, depending on the political regime, 
and retain one-half of the rent.   The ordinance does not say what 
assets, and public or private property of the state, will be managed by 
the SIE. 

    Ghost Companies 

    Two other dreams dating back to the time when the former DIE [Foreign 
Intelligence Directorate] was transformed into the SIE have come true, 
just before Christmas, for Gheorghe Fulga's [SIE director] boys.   The 
new law gives them the explicit right to use undercover legal entities, 
established under the law.   And, as if this was not enough, another 
article says in black and white that "the SIE shall conduct economic 
activities under the law."   Those activities will surely be profitable, 
because another article covers the use of the funds thus obtained: "The 
money obtained from such activities and not spent shall be carried into 
the following year."   In other words, they expect profits to exceed 
expenditures, so the SIE is allowed to save money. 

    State Institutions To Take Exams With the SIE 

    Before this ordinance, the SIE had the right to request and obtain, 
under the law, information, data, and documents from individuals and 
legal entities only.   The new statute expands that area to all levels of 
society, namely, "Romanian public authorities, economic agents, other 
legal entities, and other individuals."   At the same time a new article 
was introduced, according to which "the regulations in force on 
transmitting to other institutions nominal record-keeping or statistical 
data and information shall apply in the case of the SIE only to the 
extent that supplying such data will not trigger the disclosure of 
actions, locations, and personnel."   Therefore, the SIE cooperates with 
other institutions now and then.   As for the rest, good times are in 
store for the SIE: upon a proposal of the SIE director and with CSAT 
approval, SIE officers can be engaged in concrete operations and 
cooperation with partner services abroad, its civilian employees are 
considered civil servants, and SIE may train its personnel in military or 
civilian institutions abroad. 

[Description of Source: Bucharest Evenimentul Zilei in Romanian -- 
popular, privately owned daily; known for investigative journalism and 
criticism of the political establishment without regard to political 
orientation]