Prosecutor General Alex Florenza complained on Wednesday that prosecutors’ offices are at a historic low of 69% on staffing levels, with 165 prosecutors retiring last year alone, in the context of legislative changes and discussions about salaries and special pensions. According to him, only 10 out of 235 prosecutor’s offices have a complete scheme of the prosecutor’s office.

Alex Florenza presented mieciu with a report on the activities of the Ministry of Public Affairs for the year 2023, complaining that the year was characterized by an acute shortage of personnel, so that at the end of 2023 the employment rate of the prosecutor scheme in the prosecutor’s offices dropped to a historic low of 69.22%.

Less than 40% of prosecutor positions are filled in the General Prosecutor’s Office

He claimed that in 2023 there were at least 20 prosecutor’s offices with only one designated prosecutor position, and the situation is dire even in top prosecutor’s offices with direct competence to investigate crimes such as murder, tax evasion, money laundering or corruption.

At the moment, only ten out of 235 prosecutor’s offices in the country work according to the full prosecutor’s scheme, the Prosecutor General noted.

The situation is similar with managerial positions, where out of a total of 655 positions in the prosecutor’s office, including the DNA and DIIKOT, 370, i.e. 56%, were vacant by the end of 2023.

Only 39.58% of prosecutor positions were filled in the High Court of Cassation and Justice prosecutor’s office in 2023 amid legislative changes that caused mass resignations and “a lack of motivation for prosecutors to access promotion or transfer opportunities,” Alex Florence argued.

The mass wave of retirements is the main reason for the personnel shortage in the prosecutor’s office

Regarding the reasons that led to such a situation, Florence listed several factors:

• Legislative changes that are “implemented or expected”, discussions in the public space on the remuneration of judges and changes to the conditions of retirement
• Retirement on the basis of legislative changes regarding the conditions of retirement of magistrates. In 2023, 165 prosecutors retired.
• Acceptance by the Department of Judge Affairs of the High Council of Magistracy of applications for the appointment of a significant number of prosecutors as judges.

“Sometimes the method of solving these requests did not take into account the objective side, the real operational needs of the prosecutor’s office, where the relevant prosecutors came from, which led to the aggravation of personnel problems. Thus, during 2023, 29 prosecutors were appointed to the position of judge,” said Florenza.

• Low absorption of new prosecutors due to specific paths of entry into the judicial system, an aspect that made it impossible to replace the human resource that left the system. In 2023, 40 prosecutors joined the system.

Non-standard situations: three prosecutor’s offices work at a distance of less than 60 kilometers

Alex Florenza argued that there will be several solutions to the understaffing problem, including:

• “Stimulating the process of entry of new prosecutors into the profession by organizing the necessary competitions by the Higher Council of Magistracy in accordance with the needs determined at the level of the state ministry;
• Avoid holding new contests for on-site promotion even after 2026, until personnel schemes in hierarchically higher parquet divisions are stabilized;
• Ensuring legislative stability regarding laws on the organization of the judicial system, which will remove concerns about possible changes related to professional status.
• More effective use of the institution of delegation and ensuring a fair balance between the personnel needs of prosecutor’s offices and specialized structures;
• facilitating the introduction of some legislative changes, which allow, under certain conditions, to temporarily suspend the activities of prosecutor’s offices attached to judges, if it is recorded that it is impossible to hold the positions of prosecutors for a long time;
• Finalization during 2024 of the draft regulatory act, which can be submitted to the Ministry of Justice, and presentation in public space of the arguments, which are the basis of such a project, regarding the need to reorganize the prosecutor’s office next to the judge.
• Now there are 176 prosecutor’s offices under judges, and there have been non-standard situations when 3 such prosecutor’s offices work at a distance of less than 60 km.”

“A large number of local prosecutor’s offices creates, on the one hand, an acute problem of ensuring the personnel scheme and stabilization of the prosecutor’s staff, and on the other hand, significant material and technical difficulties associated with the need to provide appropriate premises. on the activities of prosecutor’s offices and the increase of material resources. The solution of a unified prosecutor’s office would create conditions for balancing the scope of activities, fair distribution of material and personnel resources according to objective criteria, as well as reducing the number of managerial positions and, accordingly, ensuring the management content of the prosecutor’s office. existing Prerequisites will also be created for real specialization of prosecutors from prosecutor’s offices alongside judges in areas of special social importance (interrogation of minors, investigation of environmental crimes, crimes against sexual freedom, computer crimes). The proposed measure would correspond to the European trend of reducing the number of courts and prosecutor’s offices and concentrating resources. In order not to affect the principle of stability used by prosecutors, criminal cases and files will be moved, and not personnel who will enjoy the same rights as in the current legislation,” said Florenza.