FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS GENERAL PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

SUMMARY

This Functional Analysis of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Moldova was commissioned by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), with the financial support of the European Union and co-funded by the Soros Foundation Moldova (SFM). The research forming the basis of the Functional Analysis explored the situation with key functions of GPO under the law and in practice, institutional independence of GPO and its leadership, internal independence of individual prosecutors within the system as well as practical matters of GPO functioning in general and in different core areas of activity. To that end, the research, per its terms of reference, covered the following:

• key functions of General Prosecutor`s Office and their performance (function to direct, control, organise and coordinate the activities of other prosecutor`s offices; function to lead and exercise prosecution in cases of special importance; function to represent the accusation in the Supreme Court of Justice; other GPO functions);
• institutional independence of the Office and its leadership (including appointment, dismissal, accountability, reporting and budgeting of GPO);
• internal independence of individual prosecutors (including rules and practice of appointment, promotion, evaluation / attestation and remuneration; accountability, dismissal and disciplinary liability of prosecutors as well as integrity of prosecutors; rules of assignment and re-assignment of cases4 right to challenge instructions from the superior prosecutors and other safeguards against improper interference in prosecutor`s work);
• prosecutorial self-governance (bodies of PSG, composition, functioning, ensuring independence and efficiency);
• organisational structure, including specialisation of prosecutors, and human resources;
• workload of prosecutors, business processes, material conditions and technical resources;
• planning, defining priorities and ensuring resources in criminal investigation and prosecution of serious crimes;
• recovery of assets from serious proceeds generating crimes by prosecutors;
• international cooperation;
• performance indicators and statistics, PR / communication (external and internal), capacity building; etc.

This Analysis is aimed at identifying the organisational and functional gaps and needs of the analysed institution, formulating policy recommendations to enhance the efficiency and strengthen capacities of GPO to implement its role and powers as provided by the Law 3/2016e. One of the key research questions was to assess specifically which functions should GPO continue to exercise, and which functions would be better performed outside the GPO. The FA specifically addressed the organisational chart of GPO and assessed the number of prosecutors and other staff the GPO needs to perform its current role and eventually the revised functions proposed as a result of the Analysis.

The findings of Functional Analysis are presented in two sections, which separately analyse functions, independence of GPO and prosecutors as well as prosecutorial self-governance (Section I) and functioning of FPO (Section II). The research generally confirms that, despite the substantial progress achieved by Moldova in the reform of criminal justice system, many significant gaps and omissions remain to be addressed in both its legislative framework and practice to reach the goal of strengthening both independence and efficiency of prosecution system in the country. In particular, it was established that the functions of GPO are still too broad and go far beyond criminal justice area, that there are problems with the workload, organisation, prioritisation and planning of its work. The number of prosecutors per capita in Moldova is the highest among the Council of Europe countries, while the number of support staff is one of the lowest. Individual prosecutors do not have sufficient independence within the system.