The sixth meeting of the Anticorruption Platform was hosted by the Ministry of Justice and involved high-ranking officials, experts and representatives of key institutions in the justice sector, including Minister of Justice Veronica Mihailov-Moraru and head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office Veronica Dragalin, IPN reports.
The Platform discussed the concept of reorganization and optimization of the structure of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office (APO). Both Prime Minister Dorin Recean and Minister Veronica Mihailov-Moraru stressed the importance of combining the forces of the anticorruption institutions and the judicial sector, firmly applying the law and delivering results in cases.
In the context of the reorganization and optimization of the APO structure presented by the Prosecutor General’s team, the participants in the meeting of the Anticorruption Platform specified that "this is one of the objectives included in the Action Plan for implementing the Strategy for ensuring the independence and integrity of the justice sector for 2022-2025.”
Encouraging the secondment of criminal investigation and investigation officers was another discussed topic. The participants considered short-, medium- and long-term solutions that can reduce the shortage of staff in the field, coming up with a set of conclusions and steps to be taken in the next period.
It is noteworthy that at the beginning of this week, the Supreme Security Council recommended the Government to make immediate changes to improve the work of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office. President Maia Sandu noted "the complete failure" and said that the APO did not deliver the expected results in the fight against grand corruption and political corruption. She stressed the necessity of urgently creating the Anticorruption Court.
In response, the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office said that it welcomes the SSC's message, but noted that it "experiences a serious shortage of personnel" and budgetary resources and does not have a functional head office that would allow it to operate as expected.
On Friday, November 15, the Superior Council of Prosecutors (SCP) is to examine the modification of the structure of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office.
