She probably has personal concerns because the vetting for the prosecutors of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office is to start, Minister of Justice Veronica Mihailov-Moraru said, commenting on Victoria Furtună’s decision to resign. The minister admitted that when the vetting process begins, more prosecutors could leave the system, but this was anticipated and the evaluation will take place in stages, IPN reports

The official noted that the resignation of Victoria Furtună can be related to the assessment of the professional integrity and ethics, which is to begin soon at specialized prosecutor’s offices. The honest and professional prosecutors have nothing to be afraid of.

“She probably has some personal concerns because the vetting starts at the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office soon. I’m very confident that the honest prosecutors without integrity-related problems have nothing to worry about. When developing the evaluation concept, the risk of many vacancies appearing as a result of possible resignations was taken into account. We also have the example of Albania in this regard. That’s why the evaluation mechanism in the Republic of Moldova was designed to be implemented in stages. We started with the evaluation of the SCM and SCP and continue with the Supreme Court of Justice, appeals courts and specialized prosecutor’s offices,” Veronica Mihailov-Moraru stated in the talk show “At 360 Degrees” on Radio Moldova.

The official admitted that more prosecutors and judges could leave office, but noted that the vetting exercise is mandatory for cleaning up the system. Those who pass the evaluation will have twice-higher salaries and guarantees to carry out their tasks without interference.

“There could be resignations and it is up to each person. The law allows the person to take a decision during 20 days. But I believe that both the prosecutors and judges are interested in restoring society’s confidence in the judiciary and the prosecution system, and this extraordinary evaluation exercise is also desired by the population so that the system is restarted. When the vetting is passed, the salaries will increase considerably and the guarantees for the assessed persons will be quite high,” said the minister.

Earlier, the head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office Veronica Dragalin said that a number of prosecutors of their institution would tender their resignations when the vetting process starts as the prosecutors are not sure that this assessment will take place objectively and fairly.