Justice Minister Sergiu Litvinenco says that “legal solutions must be identified to cancel or suspend” the competition to fill the post of head of the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS), so that a repeated competition can be initiated later. The Minister’s reaction comes as several public figures are calling for the annulment of the competition for the post of head of the PCCOCS.

“In relation to the competition for the position of head of the PCCOCS initiated by the CSP in November 2022 and taking into account all the situation created involving lack of credibility and imminent risk of vitiation, I believe that legal solutions for its cancellation or suspension should be identified. The competition is to be repeated or, if necessary, resumed when there is a CSP with a plenipotentiary mandate, i.e. after the completion of the prevetting exercise,” the minister wrote on social media.

On January 23, 2023, prosecutor Eduard Bulat, who was one of the deputies of former acting Prosecutor General Dumitru Robu, requested the annulment of Munteanu’s January 18 response on the refusal to appoint him as chief prosecutor of the PCCOCS without a competition.

At the same time, Iulian Groza, who is a member of the special pre-selection commission of candidates for the post of head of the PCCOCS, said on 26 January that “this competition is flawed and the integrity and credibility of the selection process and the results of the competition are seriously affected”. Groza believes that the competition should be cancelled.

Iulian Groza’s announcement came a few days after one of the candidates for the head of the institution, Eugen Rurac, sent a request to the Council asking for Groza’s exclusion from the Commission.

The special pre-selection committee for the candidates for the post of chief prosecutor of the PCCOCS, which met in closed session on Monday 23 January to examine the candidates’ files in the light of the eligibility criteria, decided that the three candidates for the post of head of the PCCOCS “meet the eligibility criteria” and were promoted to the interview stage.

Thus, according to a press release issued by the Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP), Andrei Mațco, acting head of the General Directorate of Criminal Prosecution within the National Anticorruption Centre (CNA), Eugen Rurac and Sergiu Russu, chief prosecutor of the Anti-Trafficking in Human Beings Section of the General Prosecutor’s Office, were admitted to the second stage of the pre-selection.

The special commission has scheduled the interview of the candidates for 1 February 2023, starting at 10 a.m., at the premises of the High Council of Prosecutors in bd. Stefan cel Mare și Sfânt, 73.