​Awaiting a civil service freeze, the government wants to approve on Wednesday the addition of 60 posts to the Supreme Court staff under a bill initiated by the Ministry of Justice. The budget impact will be almost 6 million lei during the next 7 months.

The draft government decision was initiated by the Ministry of Justice headed by liberal Katalin Preda at the request of the High Court of Cassation and Justice.

Reason? Significant expansion of the powers of the Supreme Court as a result of the transfer of the budget of the courts after the entry into force of Law No. 368/2022 on the state budget for 2023.

• “A significant increase in the powers of the Supreme Court of Cassation and Justice as a result of taking over the budget of the courts necessarily requires an increase in its maximum number of positions for several categories of staff, which are part of the structure of existing auxiliary departments or newly created (assistant magistrates, civil servants, contract employees-consultants of the head of the Supreme Court of Cassation court and justice and clerks). shown in the explanatory note.

The Supreme Court will have a maximum number of 654 posts

Currently, the High Court has 594 positions, of which 45 are vacant.

However, according to the draft GD, the staffing scheme will be supplemented by 60 posts, so the High Court will have the advantage of the maximum number of 654 posts.

The draft GD states that in order to carry out the activities of the High Court of Cassation and justice in proper conditions, it is necessary to supplement its positions, namely:

• 45 positions of civil servants, which are included in the newly created departments or the number of which must be increased as a result of the reorganization of the Supreme Court.
• 7 positions of assistant magistrates, allocated to newly created departments, involved in personnel management and litigation activities related to the new powers arising from the adoption of the budget for personnel costs and subrogation of the Supreme Court in all rights and responsibilities of the Ministry of Justice;
• 2 clerks associated with the Office of the Judiciary, who will ensure the transfer of procedural documents in cases in which the Supreme Court of Cassation refers to the courts, and will also provide the necessary support to other categories of staff within this structure.
• 4 clerks.
• 2 positions of advisers to the chairman of the High Court of Cassation and Justice (contract staff).

Budget impact: Almost 5.9 million lei this year alone

Personnel costs with people who will be employed in 60 new positions during the next 7 months will amount to more than 5.9 million lei.

Starting from 2024, personnel costs for these positions will increase to more than 10.1 million lei. The average figure for 5 years is more than 9.3 million lei.

The austerity decree will most likely be adopted on Friday

The so-called “austerity decree”, with which the government hopes to save 5.3 billion lei, given the officially announced budget deficit of 20 billion lei, is not on the agenda for Wednesday.

The decree, which also aims to freeze public employment, with some exceptions, is likely to be adopted by the government on Friday, according to HotNews.ro sources.

Earlier, Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke said that the government will definitely adopt this regulatory act this week.

• Read more: DOCUMENT “Decree on Savings”, published by the Ministry of Finance. All measures with which the government hopes to save more than 5 billion lei, although the budget hole is four times larger