Corruption in judicial system can be eradicated through two bills, CAPC

Two bills standing before the relevant parliamentary commissions can help counter corruption in the judicial system. This is the opinion of the experts from the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC), who tested the bills for corruptibility, reports Info-Prim Neo. One of the bills aims to amend the Law on Judicial Structure and the Law on Judge Status. Under the bill, in case of committing acts of corruption, judges will face criminal charges without the prior consent of the Superior Council of Magistracy. “This will allow more efficient procedures in penalizing the judges who have committed acts of corruption”, CAPC expert Marina Kalughin told a press conference. The bill also proposes to eliminate the human factor from the naming of court panels by building electronic software which will select the members of the panel, including the president of the panel. For panels of six judges and above, the position of vice-president will be introduced. Furthermore, the project proposes the application of a special procedure that would check the health condition of candidates for the position of a judge, and verify the physical and psychological state of acting judges every 5 years. The conclusions along with the certificate will be presented to Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM). The only objection CAPC has on the matter is that it would be safer if the SCM would receive the conclusion only, without the certificates themselves, since the latter may contain personal data. Performance evaluations on the judges will be done once in three years. “In our opinion, it would be better if this term would be changed to once in five years, because the procedures may be time consuming. In order to avoid focusing our efforts on procedures of performance evaluation, we believe the term should be once every five years”, said the CAPC expert. The second bill that underwent corruptibility expertise refers to the selection, career advancement and performance evaluation of the judges. Marina Kalughin said that this task will fall upon two newly formed judicial structures: the Selection Committee and the Performance Evaluation Committee. In both cases committee members are appointed by the SCM. “If the decision belongs entirely to the SCM, there is the risk of selecting only people who are loyal to the judicial system”, said Marina Kalughin. According to CAPC, these members should be appointed by the Ministry of Justice, the Parliament, and the SCM. CAPC project coordinator Stela Pavlov noted that the bills were tested as part of the project “Corruption Proofing of Draft Legislative Acts – Phase V”, which is financially supported by the Swedish Civil Rights Defenders and the Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency.