Department of Judicial Administration to be transferred to SCM

The Department of Judicial Administration will be transferred from the Ministry of Justice to the Supreme Council of Magistrates (SCM). Minister of Justice Oleg Efrim told Info-Prim Neo the move is aimed at eliminating speculations about the executive’s influence on the justice system. “They say the Department of Judicial Administration, respectively the Ministry of Justice, exert influence when the budgets of courts of law are presented,” said Oleg Efrim. An interdisciplinary group that includes representatives of the SCM is drafting a bill to transfer the Department of Judicial Administration under the Council’s management. “Under the group’s schedule, the bill will be submitted to the Government for examination this month. I hope that when the transfer is made, we will be able to say that all the possible excessive influence and interference between the executive power and the judicial one were removed,” stated the minister. Recently, experts of the International Commission of Jurists made public a report on the implementation of the justice reform in Moldova. A part of the conclusions were formulated as concerns. “Evidently, we share some of these concerns. But we should not forget that the changes planned in the legal system came into force last August and some of them will start to be implemented this year. Consequently, we must now monitor attentively the reform process,” said Oleg Efrim. He also said that during the monitoring process they will take into account the recommendations and conclusions of the report compiled by the International Commission of Jurists and, when necessary, the Ministry will intervene to propose relevant amendments to the legislation.