#Romania: Speech of Prosecutor General #AlexFlorenta at the presentation of the Activity Report of the Public Ministry for 2023Justice News247

The year 2023 represented for the new management team of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice the challenge and, at the same time, the opportunity to initiate a structural transformation and an evolution in organizational dynamics, which led to the adoption of strategic approaches oriented towards efficiency and performance.

Substantial changes in the approach to institutional strategy, evidenced by the adoption of priority areas for action, will facilitate efficient allocation of resources, optimising results and minimising associated risks.
The prioritization of the activity of the Public Ministry reflects the current trends and threats to the rule of law in areas of interest, such as the economic and financial field, cyber security, combating corruption, protecting the environment, involving sustainable measures and strategies to prevent risks and effectively combat these threats.

Increasing the quality of justice in all its components has also been a priority and achieving this objective is closely linked to stepping up efforts to ensure faster and more efficient justice for citizens.
Building on the fundamentals outlined above, 2023 was governed by three major challenges:
1. The particularly difficult situation in terms of human resources at the level of the Public Ministry;
2. The need to reorganize the activity of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice;
3. Digital transformation of the Public Ministry.

HUMAN RESOURCES

In terms of human resources, 2023 was characterized by the worsening of the staff shortage, so that, at the end of 2023, the occupancy rate of the prosecutors’ scheme at the level of the Public Ministry decreased to a historical minimum of 69.22%.
At the same time, there is an aggravation of this situation at the level of some superior prosecutor’s offices, with direct competences in investigating serious crimes (murder, tax evasion, money laundering, corruption).
It should be noted, in this regard, that currently only 10 prosecution units out of a total of 235 operate with the complete prosecutorial scheme.
The situation is similar for 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%.

In these circumstances, human resources management was a priority objective of the management team of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, being sustained efforts are made to ensure the basic functionality of prosecutor’s office structures and to ensure continuity in criminal prosecution and judicial activity.
A special situation was also represented by the occupancy rate of prosecutor positions at the level of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, which reached during 2023 a percentage of 39.58%, amid several cases (on the one hand, the aforementioned legislative changes, which generated massive retirements, and on the other hand, lack of motivation of prosecutors to access promotion or transfer opportunities to the ICCJ).

As such, a constant concern was to attract at the level of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice a body of prosecutors with experience and good specialization in investigating crimes in the priority areas of the Public Ministry, meaning that, at the end of 2023, the occupancy rate was increased to a percentage of 58.33%.

Analysis
The administrative and operational capacity of the Public Ministry, seen as the set of human, material and institutional resources that prosecutor’s offices benefited from during 2023, was substantially influenced by several factors:
● Extrinsic factors to the judiciary, among which are highlighted:
→ legislative changes made or planned to be made, discussions held in the public space on the remuneration of justice personnel and changes in retirement conditions;

→ the budget of prosecutor’s offices and considerable inter-institutional efforts to ensure the material resources necessary for the proper functioning of the Public Ministry.
● Factors intrinsic to the judicial system, among which are highlighted:
→ the high retirements that took place against the background of expected legislative changes to the retirement conditions of magistrates;
Thus, during 2023, 165 prosecutors ceased their activity by retirement.

→ the admission by the Judges’ Section of the Superior Council of Magistracy of applications for the appointment of a considerable number of prosecutors as judges.
Sometimes, the manner in which these requests were dealt with did not take into account, in an objective manner, the real needs for the functioning of the prosecution units from which those prosecutors came, which led to an increase in personnel problems. Thus, during 2023, a number of 29 prosecutors were appointed as judges.
→ the low absorption of new prosecutors, through the specific ways of entering the magistracy, which made it impossible to replace the human resource that left the system.

→ boosting the process of entering the profession of new prosecutors, through the organization by the Superior Council of Magistracy of the necessary competitions, in accordance with the needs identified at the level of the Public Ministry;
→ avoiding the organisation of new promotion competitions on the spot, even after 2026, until the establishment of staffing plans at hierarchically superior prosecution units is stabilised;
→ to ensure legislative stability on laws organising the judiciary, which would allay concerns about possible changes in employment status.
● Internal solutions:
→ making more efficient use of the institution of delegation and ensuring a fair balance between the staffing needs of prosecutor’s offices and specialised structures;
→ promoting legislative changes that allow, under certain expressly mentioned conditions.

Currently, there are 176 prosecutor’s offices attached to district courts, with abnormal situations being encountered that 3 such prosecutor’s offices operate on a distance of less than 60 km.
The large number of local prosecutor’s offices generates, on the one hand, an acute problem of ensuring the occupation of the staffing plan and stabilizing prosecutors, and, on the other hand, major logistical difficulties, related to the need to ensure adequate premises for the activity of prosecutor’s offices and increased material resources.

The solution of the single prosecutor’s office would create the premises for balancing the volume of activity, the fair allocation, on objective criteria, of material and human resources, as well as reducing the number of management positions and ensuring the correlative managerial content of the existing ones. It would also create the premises for a real specialization of prosecutors from prosecutor’s offices attached to judges in areas of particular importance for society (hearing minors, investigating environmental crimes, crimes against sexual freedom, cybercrimes, etc.). The proposed measure would be in line with the European trend of decreasing the number of courts and prosecutor’s offices and concentrating resources.

In order not to affect the principle of stability enjoyed by prosecutors, there will be a move of criminal works and cases, and not of staff, who will enjoy the same rights as in the current legislation.

REORGANIZATION OF THE ACTIVITY OF THE ICCJ

There is the highest number of cases to be solved in the last 8 years, with an increase compared to 2022 of 0.7% of the total number of cases to be solved and 0.8% of newly registered cases during 2023.
The number of complaints, applications, pleadings and referrals was also very high -492,116.

545,600 cases were solved, 1.7% more than in 2022
48,338 indictments and plea bargains were drawn up
At the same time, there is an increase of 3.9% in the number of cases solved by indictment, which is in the prosecutor’s own criminal investigation, which highlights an increased involvement of prosecutors in the way of administering evidence in cases under their own instrumentation, compared to those at police bodies, in which the prosecutor supervises the criminal prosecution activity, where there is a 4.4% decrease in cases solved by indictment.

Regarding the number of defendants – individuals sent to trial, there is a decrease of 4.3% compared to 2022, but there is an increase of 11.9% of defendants – legal entities sent to trial.
The number of individual defendants sent to trial under preventive arrest was 2.8% higher than in 2022.

Average number of individual defendants sent to trial per 100,000 inhabitants – 313
The following categories of offences recorded increases in the number of defendants sent to trial:
– buying influence (+207.7%)
– influence peddling (+52.2%)
– migrant smuggling (+38.2%)
– bribery (+13.8%)
– illicit drug trafficking and use (+13.7%)
– trafficking in minors (+7.6%)

The number of defendants finally acquitted decreased by 11.3% compared to 2022, representing a share of 1.8% of all defendants sent to trial
The number of cases returned to the prosecutor decreased by 12.4% compared to 2022, representing a share of 0.4% of the total cases solved by indictment.

JUDICIAL ACTIVITY
The number of participations in court cases increased by 3.8% (in criminal cases) and by 12.8% (in civil cases) compared to 2022.
The number of decisions reviewed for appeals increased by 3.3% (in criminal cases) and 10.2% (in civil cases) compared to 2022.

INTERNATIONAL JUDICIAL COOPERATION ACTIVITY
There was an increase in newly registered works by 8.1% compared to 2022 and an increase in works to be solved by 5.8% compared to 2022.
Of these, 20.8% more works were solved compared to 2022.

Analysis
The prosecution and investigation supervision activity carried out by the Public Ministry during 2023 was substantially influenced by several factors:
→ the annual number of cases to be solved, which remains constantly at a very high level, amid the accelerated decrease in the occupancy rate of prosecutor positions, which makes the workload per prosecutor increase annually;
→ lack of specialization of prosecutors in investigating crimes with a high degree of sophistication or technology;