Press Information

Minister of National Defence, Angel Tîlvăr, ordered, at the end of February, verifications at the level of the entire Romanian Armed Force’s force structure, regarding the possibility that the Ministry of National Defence (MoND) active-duty personnel who were temporarily suspended from their service, may have conducted activities within Romanian private security companies, which recently operated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The verifications covered all forms of leave and free periods the MoND personnel are entitled to.

The verifications carried out revealed that 466 MoND reservists signed, after having retired, contracts for various periods with security companies that operated in the Democratic Republic of Congo. These soldiers retired after reaching the age limit, through resignation or for medical reasons.

From the data collected so far, no cases have been identified in which active-duty military personnel on unpaid leave, as stipulated in Art. 14 of Law no. 80, as of 11 July 1995, on the military personnel status, traveled, throughout the respective periods, to the D.R. Congo, to conduct activities within private security companies.

By extending the verifications to other forms of leave that involve the temporary suspension of employment relationships for active-duty military personnel, seven active-duty military sodliers were identified - two non-commissioned officers and five enlisted soldiers who, during their two-year paternity leave legally entitled to, based on Government Ordinance 111, as of 2010, regarding leave and monthly allowance given for children’s raising, with its subsequent amendments, unjustifiably conducted activities in the D.R. Congo, in different periods, between 2023 and the beginning of 2025, as short-term employees in security companies.

The research conducted so far emphasizes that these soldiers have broken several legal provisions, including: leaving the national territory without approval, the prohibition of performing other functions than those for which they are assigned, or those relating to the payment of the monthly child-raising allowance, which is granted in the situation where the applicant lives in Romania together with the child/children for whom he/she is requesting rights and is in charge of raising and caring for them. Three of these soldiers are still on child-raising leave, and four of them have returned to their units.

The investigations have already been completed for one of these seven soldiers, and the Military Prosecutor's Office has been notified, and similar measures will be applied in the other six cases. In parallel, disciplinary and administrative proceedings have been initiated, which will be finalized after the Military Prosecutor's Office pronounces on the classification of criminal acts.

The cases in question will be processed by the MoND staff, with a presentation of the legal provisions in the matter that prohibit such conduct and the legal consequences arising from such situations. 

From the extensive verifications carried out during this period, it also emerged that a number of 24 soldiers, who had retired in previous years and subsequently worked for private security companies in Congo, were accepted to return to work as active-duty military personnel in the 2023-2024 timeframe, being employed in various military units of the Ministry of National Defence. The requests for their active-duty recall were approved at the level of the military units and had as legal basis the provisions of Art. 2^1 of Law 384, as of 2006, on the status of professional enlisted military personnel, which specifies that, "according to the needs of the military institution, professional enlisted personnel with at least 4-year service period, that had transitioned to reserve pursuant to Art. 45 Paragraph (1) letters b), e)-g) and i), who are up to 45 years old, may be recalled to active-duty if they have been reservists for an uninterrupted period of 4 years ".

Although the recall to active-duty of these soldiers does not pose significant vulnerabilities from a national security perspective, all of them being assigned to positions at the bottom of the military hierarchy, and their security clearance is the minimum one, additional verification and monitoring measures were ordered for each case, and, depending on the results, measures will be taken accordingly.

Thus, 14 situations were identified in which reserve military personnel who had worked, for various periods, in the D.R. Congo in this position and, subsequently, acquired, throughout the 2020-2024 period, the voluntary reservist status.

Minister of National Defence ordered the clarification of the circumstances and responsibilities that allowed these situations to unfold, as well as the taking of preventive measures of utmost urgency in the future.

The Press Office