There is a risk that pre-vetting and the external assessment of judges and prosecutors will leave the system without people, said the chairman of the Legal Resources Center Vladislav Gribincea. He noted that the whole process of cleaning the system will last for up to four years. For their part, representatives of the PCRM-PSRM Bloc said such a fundamental reform should enjoy political consensus in the legislative body, but the government ignored any initiative coming from the opposition, IPN reports.
Representatives of the parliamentary opposition said that even if they challenged in the Constitutional Court the law on the assessment of candidates for member of the Supreme Security Council or the Supreme Council of Prosecutors, they delegated a representative to work on the assessment commission. Socialist MP Vasile Bolea said that this way the opposition will monitor the proper conduct of the pre-selection.
“We have a representative of the opposition on this pre-vetting commission. We will monitor the way in which this commission works. Our representative will watch over all the procedures for them to take place in accordance with the law so that the future candidates for the posts of SCM and SCP member do not become ‘yellow” suddenly. For such exercises, we need broad political consensus. In Albania, there was broad consensus and the reform started from the amendment of the country’s Constitution. The changes were supported almost unanimously in Parliament. In our country, the opposition is every time ignored,” Vasile Bolea stated in the program “Thursday with Liliana Barbăroșie” on the public TV channel Moldova 1.
For their part, representatives of civil society said that the whole process of cleaning the justice sector will be difficult and will last for several years. The head of the Legal Resources Center said the pre-vetting of candidates for the posts of SCM and SCP member is expected to be completed by the end of this summer, but the assessment of judges and prosecutors will last longer.
“The commission will request the candidates to make known their property and costs for the last five years. It will also examine the candidates’ property over the past 15 years and the judgments passed by these judges. The commission will adopt a decision and will say if the person deserves to be put on the list of candidate or not. At the end August, it will be clear who passed the pre-assessment and who didn’t. There is a risk that we will not have people to replace those who will leave the system and the second risk is that this pre-vetting will last long, for about 3-4 years,” stated Vladislav Gribincea.
The pre-vetting commission consists of six members named by Parliament, three of whom were recommended by the international development partners that offer technical assistance to the Republic of Moldova. The entity started work in April. The commission assesses the candidates for the posts of SCM and SCP member to determine their integrity and professionalism.
