CHILD PROTECTION--A SOAP BUBBLE

Here is a story of kids being sent to an orphanage and their own famly members cannot rescue them.

It is from Oct. 28, 2005 Ziua newspaper and the authors are Corina Scarlat and Voichita
Rascanu.

CHILD PROTECTION--A SOAP BUBBLE

The children of the stuntman Marculescu, who was brutally murdered in 1998, are now the victims of a bureaucratic system and the incompetence of the authorities. For seven months they have had no one as their legal guardian. Their aunt has tried with all her power to defeat the system and obtain legal guardianship of these two children.

These children are in a situation which is difficult to imagine. Their mother died in March of this year because of a serious illness. From April until the present the aunt of these two children, Steliana Ragalie, has been fighting with all the state authorities who are supposed to be able to help her efficiently resolve this problem. More specifically, Steliana, after the death of her sister, had asked the CPS for guardianship of her nephews who were now orphans. She declared to us that she began this procedure to obtain legal guardianship at the beginning of April of 2005. She is desperate because she did not receive, even until this very day, the legal guardianship for her nephews. She has gone to the courts in Bucharest, but received no help. Now she is soliciting our help. The case is complicated because of the uncaring attitude and actions of public servants and could have been resolved very simply in 48 hours. This is all due to the incompetence and apathy of the CPS.

The mayor's office, but more precisely the CPS, could have resolved this problem in 48 hours if the courts had been solicited to have the children given to Steliana Ragalie under the emergency care provisions of the law. However, this did not happen. But the files of these two minors were sent to the commission without ever mentioning emergency placement. These files have been bounce around from one court to another. But according to article 66 of law 272/2004, if CPS would have sent the files to the Bucharest court, with request for emergency placement, these children would not have needed to go through one drama after another. According to the law, the Bucharest court would have been obligated to resolve this case in a maximum of 48 hours. However, their aunt has not managed up until now to receive their father's and mother's pensions (money due to them until they turn at least 18) nor their social assistance because she is not their legal guardian. In the end, after hearing the children speak, the judges from the Bucharest court decided to decline to rule on the case and sent the case to the court in Sector I in Bucharest. When the two cases got to the Sector I court, which is in fact qualified to grant guardianship under article 40 from law 272/2004 because these minors are living in that court's jurisdiction, one would have thought that the cases were near to being resolved. However, it didn't happen. This is because the judge, Georgian Davidoiu, decided that the Sector I court is not qualified. He sent the case to the appeals court in Bucharest via decision number 10247/Oct. 19, 2005. When contacted, he refused to speak to us. Until a court decides to resolve the problem of jurisdiction, as well as the two cases, these two children will remain orphans without the benefit of a legal guardian nor the financial support that is due them.

Sources at the national CPS say that until family courts are established, something that is supposed to take place before 2008, the files will probably be bounced back and forth from one court to another and the resolution of these situations will be very difficult. There are only two family courts that have been established at this time; one in Brasov and one in Iasi. The others have not been established for various reasons, "lack of space, lack of people, etc..."

The CPS stated that part of the reason the case was not resolved was because the police report on Steliana Ragalie was not in the file. However, she complained that CPS never indicated either verbally or in writing, that such a thing was necessary. After she got the police report it was placed in the file. But because the case was not resolved in timely fashion, and the police report expired, she was required to get yet another one. She also said that if she had not gone to CPS and taken the initiative, no one would have even come to do a home study. The people from the CPS maintain that the only alternative measure of child protection, until the courts resolve a problem of guardianship, is for the children to be taken to an orphanage, where "they are given everything they need". They said that until then, they can't do anything. In other words, they reneged on their responsibility and gave it to the judges. They did tell us that these kinds of problems can possible be decided more easily, via decisions by the local commission for child protection.