Chief Inspectors Left Periodically to Jump at Each Other’s Throats for the Command of Chief Inspector, like Fight Dogs, to the Amusement of the Politicians. Who Benefits from This Instability of the Service?

The scandal on the political scene has captured the attention of media channels as well that of the people. Everything focuses on the pedophile policeman, on the war between Dan and Tudose and between Hungarian ethnic group and Tudose. Bread and circus. At least circus, if not bread.

Silence is hanging over the Service. The silence before the storm. Since 2011, the change of the firefighters’ commanders has become a habit. A bad one. February 4th is getting closer and closer. It will be the day when it all comes at the crossroads yet again. In fact, that will be the day when the politicians appoint a new commander of the firefighters. The fights are fought way before that, to the much amusement of the politicians.

Up to 2011, the firefighters used to have a commander in lead for at least ten years. At present, a commander does not last more than a mayor’s or a representative’s mandate. Annually, if not every six months, the commanders are changed “to improve management”. And, every single time, before the commission expires, sometimes even earlier, the fights begin: the chief inspectors are thrown into the ring where they jump at each other’s throats just like fight dogs to the amusement of the politicians behind them. Not all of them, of course. Among them are some commanders who refuse to be humiliated. But there are always two or three who let themselves being coaxed by the possibility of retirement after a year, with a higher rank and a similar payment.

Since January 2014, enlightened minds have decided that an inspector general should take an exam. At present, although the commission of the current inspector general expires on February 4th, the idea of an exam for the position seems far away. Maybe the minister is busy with the editing of the draft with no grammar mistakes or with the scandal of the pedophile policeman and forgot about the firefighters. Just like she forgot to praise them after the intervention at Moftinu.

What are the possibilities from now on? Either the current inspector general will be appointed, or the position will be available and, until then, he will remain on it or be replaced by a new commissioner until the exam. Or a new commissioner will be in charge for about a year and…the vicious circle goes on and on. Briefly, there will be stability or the instability will continue in the Service. But stability has not been wanted since General Vladimir Secară. The Service was left at the mercy of politicians who amused themselves at the typical Romanian style in which the chief inspectors or their secondaries ate each other for half a mandate as general inspector.

Nothing can be destroyed from outside. Everything falls due to internal erosion. And, at the risk of offending, I feel the need to say it: in no other Service or institution from the Ministry of the Interior have I ever seen people jumping at each other’s throats for a position, like the firefighters. That is why a minister, who lacked inspiration or love for the firefighters, appointed a gendarme to command them, thus making them the laughing stock of the Ministry. The end? The gendarme got himself a general star, the politicians enjoyed the humiliation of the Service so highly respected by the people and…that is basically about it.

A new crisis follows in the Service. We ask ourselves…what if, on February 3rd starts a fire at some oil drill, who will lead the intervention of the firefighters on February 4th? Who knows? Whoever must know, knows it, probably. What we do not know is…who gains from all this carefully directed instability? What is at stake when a minister commands a Service through commissioners? Why would anyone find it efficient that the inspector general be changed every six months or a year? Unanswered questions for too many years.

The firefighters, where to? Wherever the wind blows from the palace…Lucky with the Nomexes.