Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin on Dec. 15 strictly chose in-house candidates to head 154 newly created local prosecutor offices, a blow to what many hoped would be an overhaul to bring fresh blood to what is widely regarded as an ineffective, politically subservient and corrupt institution.
The vacant posts were formed when the new law on prosecutors went into effect on Oct. 14, 2014. They created 178 local prosecutor heads, 23 of whom weren’t appointed because they would have been stationed in areas of the country that Russia occupies: eight in Crimea and 15 in eastern Ukraine.
The law provides for the creation of a three-tiered prosecutorial system consisting of general, regional and local procuracies.
No newcomers hired
Only 8 percent of the 930 candidates that five special interview panels recommended and sent to Shokin for selection had no employment history with the prosecutor’s office, according to Maryna Tsapok of the agency’s reform department.
Shokin rejected those candidates.
The minimum job requirement was to have at least two years’ experience in the legal profession.
The rest came from within law enforcement agencies, 52 percent of whom either led district or local prosecutorial offices.
Altogether, more than 5,000 candidates applied for 155 leadership positions – a lead position in Odesa Oblast is still vacant because the Odesa Regional Administrative Court on Dec. 2 ruled to cancel a local interview panel’s decision on who to recommend for the post.
2,600 candidates
A narrowed list of 2,600 candidates was then interviewed. After the interviews, the list shrank to 930 candidates, 8 percent of whom had no work history at the Prosecutor’s General Office.
Operating in the five cities of Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Lviv and Dnipropetrovsk, the interview panels chose to recommend six candidates for each of the 155 positions to head local prosecutor offices, according to Tsapok.
Testing was conducted in three stages, Vladyslav Kutsenko, procurator of the General Prosecutor’s Office, commented on the agency’s website on Dec. 16. A psychological test was administered, and aptitude in legislation and general knowledge was measured.
“The competitive application process was conducted publicly and widely disseminated in the mass media,” Kutsenko said. “Test assignments on legislation was published on the General Prosecutor’s website, thus, every wishing (applicant) could familiarize themselves and prepare for the tests.”
Openness and transparency was ensured by installing video cameras in places where testing was conducted, according to the prosecutor’s office. “Also, observers from civil society and international organizations were involved,” reads the agency’s statement.
Seventy-one percent of the local prosecutor heads that Shokin chose previously held management positions in either district or local agency offices. Another 13 percent were either first deputy or deputy heads.
The interview panels consisted of three representatives from parliament, and four from the prosecutor’s office, one of whom came from the agency’s reform department.
