Civic Participation (PC), the non-partisan civic group, has submitted a recourse to the Superior Administrative Court seeking that a recent effort to replace state prosecutors be stopped. PC presented the appeal against the most recent public prosecutor competition. PC seeks the annulling of internal competition CIT-01-2020 of the Attorney General Office, through which the outgoing prosecutor authorities would choose the heads of regional court prosecutors’ offices, specialized prosecutors’ offices, public prosecutors’ offices and state attorneys.
“We request the TSA to declare the contest null and void since it violates fundamental principles that govern the administration and is contrary to the Dominican Constitution, Law No. 133-11, the Organic Law of the Public Ministry and the Regulations of the Public Ministry’s Career,” states the resource.
PC explains that one of the competition’s irregularities is that it was called without having previously established the corresponding ranks within the Public Prosecutor’s Office. “Without the establishment of these ranks, there is no guarantee that the career of the members of the Public Prosecutor’s Office will be respected, which would affect their appointment and compromise their independence and seriousness,” says the appeal presented by PC.
In a press release, Participación Ciudadana indicated that the contest was also carried out without respect for the principle of due publicity, without transparency and with a reprehensible hermeticism, since neither the contestants nor citizens in general can know who the candidates for the different positions are.
In the recourse, PC points out that as a way of seeking a discretionary appointment of new members, the contest violates due process and effective judicial protection by giving higher scores in the evaluation process to the more discretionary stages of it, such as interviews, instead of being guided by best practices that privilege the merits, skills, experience and career of the candidates. The rules of the contest also violate due process, among other things, by preventing contestants from appealing any decision against them.
With its intervention, Participación Ciudadana seeks to have this irregular process declared null to stop the attempt at control by the Public Ministry. The leading prosecutor’s term ends on 16 August 2020.
PC is represented by lawyers Fabiola Medina Garnes, Jesús Francos Rodríguez, and Melissa Silié Ruiz.
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N Digital
15 July 2020