HJPC: Call for Chief State Prosecutor to be published by the end of the month

SARAJevo, (Patria) - At the session of the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HJPC BiH), President Halil Lagumdžija stated that efforts will be made to publish the call for applications for holders of leading judicial positions, including the position of Chief Prosecutor of the State Prosecutor's Office, before the end of the month.

Lagumdžija said that, in accordance with what was agreed at the previous session, he tasked the Appointments Department to check which other judicial leaders' mandates expire in the next at least six months, and that he received feedback, Detektor.ba reports.

At the previous session, he presented conclusions, including that the Appointments and Promotions Department will prepare a list of judicial leaders whose mandates expire in the next six months, and possibly a year, and that after that, calls for applications will be issued to speed up the process.

It was then adopted as a conclusion to quickly announce calls for applications for positions that are already current, such as the position of Chief Prosecutor in the State Prosecutor's Office and some other judicial institutions.

Sandra Srdanović from the Appointments and Promotions Department also presented information at the February session on the status of the implementation of the call for applications for judicial positions from July last year, stating, among other things, that it was a large call for applications with over 800 candidates. Some of them, as she pointed out, applied for multiple positions, even up to 20 of them.

Council members discussed the length of the appointment process at the session, also stating that there is a problem with the lack of interview rooms for candidates.

Lagumdžija at today's session once again reminded of the "large call for applications" from July, as well as the one from December, and addressed the problems with its implementation.

According to estimates, Lagumdžija said that the interviewing of candidates for the large call for applications alone cannot be completed within three months.

"Despite all the difficulties that the announcement of this third call for applications will create for us, I will strive to publish that call for applications before the end of this month," said President Lagumdžija.

Currently, the acting Chief Prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH for almost five months is Milanko Kajganić, who holds this position after the former Chief Prosecutor Gordana Tadić was dismissed due to disciplinary offenses.

Among the agenda items at today's HJPC session was the analysis of disciplinary proceedings and practices. Chief Disciplinary Prosecutor Alena Kurspahić-Nadarević stated that the Disciplinary Prosecutor's Office (UDT) submitted proposals for amendments to the rules of procedure in a memorandum.

The most interesting and important topic, as she stated, is the disciplinary practice related to the decisions of disciplinary commissions and the Council itself.

"In this memorandum, we stated that there is an inconsistency in disciplinary practice. It often happens that disciplinary commissions deviate in their stances when dealing with similar, sometimes even identical allegations of disciplinary offenses," said Kurspahić-Nadarević.

In her presentation, the Chief Disciplinary Prosecutor stated, among other things, that it has been observed that in some cases there are delays in the preparation of disciplinary decisions after the conclusion of disciplinary proceedings, as well as delays in proceedings due to intentional requests for recusal, from members of the disciplinary commission, the president of the council, the reporting or chief disciplinary prosecutor.

President Lagumdžija stated that, overall, he is not fully satisfied with the disciplinary proceedings, adding that more must be done to avoid any kind of "unauthorized solidarity".

"Our biggest task is to remove people from our ranks or to appropriately punish those who are not fully professional," said Lagumdžija, clarifying that this should not be understood as a lynching, but where certain holders of judicial institutions have been prosecuted, "we must pass the test".