Cleaning up

A CAR slams into a tree at speed, and is crushed. Inside, the Romanian police find the body of the chief executive of a company that makes detergents for hospitals—one under investigation for watering down its products and leaving patients to die from drug-resistant infections. The Hexi Pharma scandal (see ) sounds like something out of “The Third Man”. For many foreigners, it confirms Romania’s reputation as a kleptocracy riddled with malfeasance and graft.Romania is certainly rotten. But the Hexi Pharma affair is evidence of how much the country is doing to tackle corruption. After investigative journalists exposed the case in late April, it was quickly taken up by the judiciary. This has become much more independent under pressure from the European Union, which Romania joined in 2007. The new general prosecutor, appointed in April by a president elected on an anti-corruption platform, is pursuing Hexi Pharma zealously. Laura Codruta Kovesi, the dauntless head of the country’s anti-corruption directorate, says her agency is also investigating. Last year it prosecuted over 1,250 officials and helped force the prime minister from power. At last month’s global corruption-fighting summit in London, Ms Kovesi was treated as if she were a rock star.