Prosecutors reject a bill that would allow Congress to choose its lawyer without a public competition

The State Attorney General’s Office (PGE) released a statement today, Thursday, expressing “absolute opposition” to two Congressional bills that provide that the heads of the legislature and judiciary elect their own lawyers for a period of 5 years.

These are drafts No. 3651/2022-ČR and No. 3270/2022-ČR – previously discussed in parliamentary committees Constitution And Justice – which are planned to be seen at today’s plenary session.

“It violates the autonomy of PGE”

PGE indicated that it had sent two official letters to the presidents of the above-mentioned commissions on 28 December asking them to “take into account legal technical opinion Made by myself advocate about these opinions.

“The aforementioned legislative proposals, suggesting that the Attorney General of the Congress of the Republic and other public institutions are elected directly by their holders, without any process and/or public competition between them, harmfully violates the principle of access meritocratic to the position of prosecutor, enshrined in paragraph 11 of Article 6 of Legislative Decree No. 1326,” the statement reads.

In this sense, the Prosecutor General’s Office indicated that the proposals “seriously affect the principle of equality (…) in accordance with the right of access to public functions.”

“If the aforementioned bills are approved, we will have state attorneys chosen through a public merit competition, while others will be chosen directly by the heads of the relevant state bodies,” the statement said.

In addition, the autonomous entity stated that the projects “violate the unity Administrative system of state legal protectionproposing to exclude the Prosecutor’s Office of the Congress of the Republic and other state institutions from the functional subordination of the PGE.

“In this regard (…) we respectfully call on the Congress of the Republic I don’t approve replacing the text of bills (…), as this would constitute a breach Administrative system of state legal protectionin addition to a serious contradiction with the principle of meritocratic access to office,” PGE noted.

What do bills No. 3651 and 3270 say?

Bill No. 3651, the author of which is a deputy Martha Moyanoand Bill 3270, sponsored by Congressman Esdras Medina, establishes several modifications to a legislative decree that restructures the state legal defense administrative system and creates the State Attorney General’s Office.

Both legislative initiatives establish changes at the level of functions Board of Directors Prosecutor General’s Office, “the collegiate body of the highest hierarchical level” of the said person.

“The functions of the Board of Directors are: to direct the selection process for the appointment of public attorneys, with the exception of public attorneys for Legislature and the judiciary, as well as autonomous constitutional bodies, which are elected by the heads of these entities for a period of five years,” the drafts say.

In addition, the legislative initiatives state that attorneys of public entities are “administratively and functionally” connected with the PGE, with the exception of those that correspond to “legislative and judicial”, as well as autonomous constitutional bodies that retain administrative and functional autonomy. guide their respective selection processes with respect to State Attorney General’s Office”.