HOW DOES ONJN MANAGE TO MAINTAIN EQUAL TREATMENT OF CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT BODY (CABs) 1f1mj

Motto: DOG AND PUPPY 5c3e18

By PhD, Attorney-at-Law, Prof. Marius PANTEA

by Grigore Alexandrescu

“How I hate some little beasts,

Like wolves, bears, lions and some others,

Who think of themselves that they value something!

They come from a great family,

That’s an accident:

And I may be noble, but to show it I do not like.

People often say that in civilized countries

There is equality.

They all take a change and the world gets carved up,

Only we pride never leaves us.

As for me one, whoever knows

That I have a joy

When all the light, even the worst,

“calls me a dog and not you.”

That’s what he was saying the other day to a certain ox

Samson, a hound of the yard, barking very loud.

The dog Samurache, sitting on one side…

As a mere spectator,

Hearing their words,

And that they have no pride, nor vain caprice,

They immediately approach

To show his love for them:

“Your thought,” he said, “seems to me wonderful.

And your feeling I honour, my brothers.”

– “We, your brothers? Samson answered, full of anger.

We, your brothers, you dog!

We’ll give you a beating

That you shall .

You know who we are, and it befits you,

You shameless little pussy, so to speak?”

– “But you said…”

– What do you care? I ask you what I said?

I was speaking true,

That I don’t love pride and I hate lions,

That I want equality, but not for puppies.”

These between us we often see,

And only with the great ones do we want equality.

This article is a pamphlet, and should be treated as such.

Amazing how one of the Class II licensed firms explains in an interview how „they are trying to instill the idea that gaming manufacturers would not be ready to deliver the new Type Approvals as required by Order 404, supplemented by Order 86” when the situation is as follows:

• In the Romanian gambling market, there are 6 companies licensed as Class II Conformity Assessment Body (CABs), according to the ONJN website (https://onjn.gov.ro/licentiati-clasa-a-ii-a/).
• The licenses in question were granted by the ONJN between 2016 and 2020.
• HG 111/2013 and OUG 77/2009 have not undergone any changes regarding the conditions for granting Class II licenses for CABs.
• Amendments were made by Orders of the President of the ONJN from 2021 – one year after the last Class II license was granted, i.e. by: Order No 404 of 16 December 2020 on the approval of the minimum technical conditions for the verification of gaming means (which was published in the Official Gazette No 10 of 6 January 2021), and by Order No 86 of 17 June 2021 amending and supplementing the Annex to the Order of the President of the National Gambling Office No 404/2020 on the approval of the minimum technical conditions for the verification of gaming means (which was published in the Official Gazette No 645 of 30 June 2021).

In conclusion, we have 6 companies that have met the criteria for class II licensing, and have received this right from the ONJN, but only one can “certify all types of gaming equipment“, given the provisions of the aforementioned Orders. Why?

Because Order 86 (which was not notified to the European Commission because it is considered to be “a linguistic correction” of Order 404 – the lawyers of the ONJN know what it is about) added to the law, and introduced conditions to be met by the CABs, even though the Order (by its very title) refers to “minimum technical conditions for the verification of gaming means“, not to the conditions that CABs must meet in order to be licensed as Class II or to operate in the market.

In Romanian, the ONJN, through the aforementioned Orders, has introduced equality between Samson and lions, but not for the Romanian dogs, because, for almost two years, the management does not want to endorse the “Accreditation Scheme in the specific regulated field of gambling means“, issued by RENAR, which would oblige all 6 companies to meet the conditions imposed by a European Regulation. But our Samson takes advantage of the existence of an accreditation in the voluntary sector (obtained from foreign countries and that he waves it around as the only one that exists) and does everything he can to prevent other companies (which have meanwhile obtained identical accreditations – in the voluntary sector) from operating in the Romanian market.

And, as the fable says, in the dialogue with the “ox“, which in this case “is not just anyone“, but the authority that supervises the field, they demand equality “as in civilized countries” and they managed in the first phase to suspend the licenses of the 3 Romanian companies competing (by September 2021), for a little over a month, and now through the “bull” (the father of the ox), I reckon that the way in which the 6 firms received the Class II licenses will be reviewed again at the end of May (in a meeting that has been postponed twice so far – for lack of quorum), and it will probably be found that some are more equal than others (even if the licensing conditions are unchanged since their advent in 2016) and action will be taken accordingly. Whether it will or not, we shall see, as the priest says “The Office has given! The office has taken! Office be blessed! Even if the law has not changed!”.

We hope that the of the Supervisory Committee of the ONJN will not fall into the trap of 2021 and notice that the ONJN and implicitly the Committee at that time, in the first phase granted the licenses in compliance with the legislation in force at this time, and the application of a possible solution of cancellation, revocation or suspension of licenses for only part of the 6 is illegal and unfair, since all companies licensed class II for CABs are in the same situation. The Committee may also ask the management of the ONJN, why has the scheme not been approved to date? Why are applications for licenses for which full documentation has been submitted not placed on the agenda? Because the framework law allows it (GEO 77/2009 in art.17 paragraph (12) states that: “The Supervisory Committee of the ONJN. will take decisions in all cases and situations related to the field of gambling”], and as such can order the urgent resolution of the situation that has been dragging on for more than 2 years.

Samson should not forget that the latest court ruling (for those interested https://portal.just.ro/2/SitePages/Dosar.aspx?id_dosar=200000000408524&id_inst=2) is unfavorable to him in the case of the “ox” and the three Romanian “Samurache” and that, at this moment, there are criminal cases at DNA which are in various stages of investigation.

The Committee may also order the ONJN management to urgently amend Order 404 and introduce the possibility of accreditation of CABs within a reasonable period of time (12-18 months) and, if these conditions are not met, to cancel the Class II licenses of those who do not comply. By reverting to the original provision in 404, to give a deadline from the publication of the Accreditation Scheme, because as it is now provided in Order 86, the 2-year period granted, expires in June this year, but the CABs cannot be accredited, because the ONJN has not endorsed the scheme, which means that the licensed firms still pay the license fee, but the documents issued will no longer be ed by the ONJN, i.e. the activity will be closed.

As in the fable, the case is simple and complicated at the same time and, even if the legal provisions are unchanged in GEO 77/2009 and HG 111/2013 of 2016, and the Committee granted the class II licenses, once tried to suspend the 3 licenses as a result of changes made by the Orders of the President of the ONJN (which provide only for the future – so says the Romanian Constitution), now, through an artifice (a measure left by the Control Corps of the MF) is trying to reinterpret the legal rules and throw away all the work done by the Directorate of Authorization, because some lawyers in the ONJN interpreted the law one time in one way and another time in another way (depending on who was running the Office and on the interests of the moment), the specialization of companies in the field is given by the quality of licensee, not by that of ISO holder (17020 or 17025) and the fact that the CABs are unable to be accredited in the field of gambling (because the specific scheme in the field is not approved by the ONJN and published by RENAR), and the moral is: “Equality we want” i.e. we want identical treatment for all 6 CABs. What will happen next with the Romanian Bureau of Legal Metrology? is a rhetorical question, to which we are curious to get an answer from the ONJN management.

It is outrageous that the gambling industry in our country has been subjected over the last period of time to a real assault with tax changes, crazy legislative initiatives, the obligation to pay, even if the activity has been or will be stopped (in the pandemic or through the effect of Order 86), and that everything this industry does is harmful to society (except the impressive amounts paid to the state budget), that it should be sent to the outskirts of the cities (in other words, we let you pay but it’s your business how you survive), and the ONJN fails to convince the political factor that will achieve the desired result only by educating the population, i.e. people will understand that gambling is a fun activity (like holidays and vacations spent in various locations at home and abroad) and not an opportunity to get rich overnight and without work.

We are an EU member country, we have regulations aligned and praised by other countries, Romanians are players, but it is unacceptable that chaos, which unfortunately is present in many state institutions, has settled in this area. Politicians need to understand that the gambling industry is legal, that it is part of the entertainment business, that no one in the industry wants to impoverish or destroy anyone, that proposals for legislative change need to be discussed with the Office and industry representatives, that business in this area is based on profit (as in any other area) and that the companies involved need predictability and legislative consistency in order to make investments and create jobs. It is not natural, for a few isolated cases, to accumulate political capital and blame the entire gambling industry without taking into the fact that the state owns the most important player in this market, the National Lottery, which together with private operators operates a monopoly.

In order to preserve equal treatment, the Office should urgently endorse the “Scheme of accreditation in the regulated field specific to means of gambling” so that it can be published by RENAR and it would also be necessary to amend Order 404 by repealing the deadline established by Order 86 and allowing a period of 12-18 months from the publication of the Scheme for the compliance of all 6 CABs and to allow the licensing of CABs that hold Accreditation issued by RENAR in the voluntary field (as has been allowed to firms that are already licensed).