Romanian Justice Minister plans external audit of prosecutors’ activity

Tudorel Toader, the Romanian minister of justice, said he would ask for an external audit of the General Prosecutor’s Office, National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA), and Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) to analyze the activity of the prosecutors working in these institutions, News.ro reported. Last week, the minister presented the results of another evaluation that looked at the activity of the general prosecutor Augustin Lazar and chief anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi. The minister gave a negative report but concluded it was not the right time to start the procedure to revoke the two. The evaluation, however, only focused on DNA's decision to start an investigation on the circumstances in which the Government issued an emergency ordinance to change the Criminal Code, at the end of January. The ordinance has been repealed after massive street protests, but Romania's Constitutional Court (CCR) ruled that DNA had no authority to investigate a Government decision. The new audit would look, among others, at the number of files each prosecutor works on, the deadlines for finishing them, the number of cases that have been brought to the attention of the European Court of Human Rights, and the number of people unjustly imprisoned. The minister did not offer a time frame for the audit. “The 303 Law allows the evaluation of prosecutors, a substantive assessment this time, and I will ask for an external audit that looks at not only the DNA and the Public Ministry, but also the DIICOT because the Romanian prosecutors, the 2,650 prosecutors, work in the fundamental structures of the Public Ministry, courts, tribunals and so on, at DIICOT and the DNA. It would be unfair, if you are going for the substance, to include only some and sidestep others,” the minister said, in an TV show aired at Antena 3. editor@romania-insider.com