Huge shortage of personnel at the ÎCCJ Prosecutor's Office

The Prosecutor's Office structures in the country are facing a serious personnel crisis, a crisis to which the 165 prosecutors who retired last year also contributed, in the context of legislative changes and discussions in the public space regarding the salary of judicial staff, Alex said Florence, the Prosecutor General of Romania, the head of the Public Ministry, yesterday, on the occasion of the presentation of the activity report of the General Prosecutor's Office for the year 2023.

Prosecutor General Alex Florenta said: "As far as human resources are concerned, the year 2023 was characterized by the acute shortage of staff, so that, at the end of last year, the degree of employment of the prosecutor scheme at the level of the Ministry of Public Affairs decreased to a historic low of 69.22%. At the same time, there is an aggravation of this situation also at the level of higher prosecutor's offices, with direct competences in the investigation of serious crimes (murder, tax evasion, money laundering, corruption). It should be noted, under this aspect, that currently only 10 prosecution units out of a total of 235 operate with the full prosecutor scheme. The situation is similar in terms of management positions where, out of a total of 655 positions at the level of the Public Ministry (including DNA and DIICOT), at the end of 2023, a number of 370 positions were vacant, which represents a percentage of 56%".

The head of the Public Ministry showed that the situation is downright dramatic regarding the filling of prosecutor positions at the level of the Prosecutor's Office next to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, where only 39.58% of the personnel scheme is covered. Regarding the reasons that led to this situation, Alex Florenta listed several factors:

- factors extrinsic to the judicial system, among which stand out: the legislative changes carried out or expected to be carried out, the discussions held in the public space regarding the remuneration of judicial personnel and the modification of retirement conditions; the budget of the prosecutor's offices and the considerable inter-institutional efforts to ensure the material resources necessary for the good functioning of the Public Ministry.

- factors intrinsic to the judicial system: the high retirements, which took place against the background of the expected legislative changes regarding the retirement conditions of magistrates.

- the admission by the Section for Judges of the Superior Council of the Magistracy of the requests for appointment as judges of a considerable number of prosecutors.

The general prosecutor stated: "Sometimes, the way these requests were resolved did not take into account, in an objective manner, the real operational needs of the prosecution units where the respective prosecutors came from, which led to an aggravation of personnel problems . Thus, during the year 2023, a number of 29 prosecutors were appointed to the position of judge", explained Florence.

Another reason for the small number of prosecutors is the low absorption of new prosecutors, through the specific ways of entering the judiciary, an aspect that made it impossible to replace the human resource that left the system. Thus, during the year 2023, a number of only 40 prosecutors entered the system, while four times more (165 prosecutors) retired.

However, prosecutors solved 545,600 cases last year, 1.7% more than in 2022, according to the data provided in the activity report, and drew up 48,338 indictments and plea agreements.

General Prosecutor Alex Florenta also said: "At the same time, there is a 3.9% increase in the number of cases resolved by referral to court, under the prosecutor's own criminal prosecution, which highlights an increased involvement of prosecutors in the way of administration of the evidentiary system in the cases under its own instrumentation, compared to those under the police bodies, in which the prosecutor supervises the criminal investigation activity, where a 4.4% decrease in the cases resolved by referral to court is noted. Regarding the number of defendants - natural persons sent to court, a decrease of 4.3% is observed compared to 2022, but an increase of 11.9% is noted in the number of defendants - legal persons sent to court".

The head of the Public Ministry showed that the number of natural person defendants sent to court in preventive detention was 2.8% higher than in 2022, and the average number of natural person defendants sent to court per 100,000 inhabitants was 313 people, and stated:

"The following categories of crimes saw increases in the number of defendants sent to court: influence buying (+207.7%), influence peddling (+52.2%), migrant trafficking (+38.2%), taking bribery (+13.8%), drug trafficking and illicit consumption (+13.7%), trafficking of minors (+7.6%)".

According to the report, the number of defendants definitively acquitted in 2023 decreased by 11.3% compared to 2022, which represents 1.8% of the total number of defendants sent to court, and the number of criminal cases for which appeals were made increased by 3.3%.