Exceeding Service Duties by the Public Servant. Consequences. Aspects of Judicial Practice
Exceeding Service Duties by the Public Servant. Consequences. Aspects of Judicial Practice

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims to analyze the legal consequences of exceeding the job duties of a public servant during their exercise. Given that there are many situations in the practice where public officials, during the working hours, perform other activities than those in the job description or even personal activities, we consider that the present approach is of interest for both the academic environment and legal practitioners. Thus, we will analyze the implications of exceeding the service duties in terms of the legislation in force both in the criminal and in the disciplinary liability context of public servant. The unpredictable character, ascertained by the Constitutional Court of Romania, of the constitutive elements of the offense of abuse of service has determined anticorruption prosecutors to initiate a criminal investigation and to prosecute civil servants for such activities. Although we admit that civil servants have to exercise their duties with the utmost diligence, we consider that exceeding the service duties or carrying out personal activities, during the working hours, cannot have criminal connotations and can be classified as disciplinary offense at most. In the following, starting from a situation encountered in the recent jurisprudence of Romania, we will try to argue with examples from the judicial practice what are the consequences of exceeding the service duties by the public servant, but especially why this misconduct cannot have criminal connotations.

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