Rodica Ciobanu – the second candidate to the Superior Council of Prosecutors who passed the Pre-Vetting Commission assessment

The Pre-Vetting Commission announces the result of the evaluation of two more candidates for positions in the Superior Council of Prosecutors (SCP). According to the Commission, the candidate nominated by the Academy of Sciences of Moldova to the SCP, Rodica Ciobanu, meets the criteria of financial and ethical integrity and passes the evaluation. In the case of prosecutor Anatolie Gîrbu, the Commission issued a decision not to pass the evaluation.

The detailed information on the integrity verification process of the two is contained in the decisions sent on Tuesday 13 June to the candidates and the institutions responsible for organising the competition, in this case the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and the PSC.

The decisions are subject to appeal and can be challenged at the Supreme Court of Justice within 5 days of receipt, without prior procedure. If, within 48 hours of receipt of the decisions, candidates do not notify the Commission of their refusal of publication, they will be placed on the Commission’s website in depersonalised form. Only candidates who pass the Pre-Vetting Committee’s assessment are eligible for membership of the PSC.

Rodica Ciobanu was publicly heard by the members of the Pre-Vetting Committee in the second round of hearings of candidates to the PSC, held at the end of May. Her interview focused on a topic of financial integrity relevant to the evaluation. Candidate Anatolie Gîrbu, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Ungheni District Prosecutor’s Office, requested to be assessed solely on the basis of the material gathered by the Commission, opting not to participate in the hearings in public session.

So far, Rodica Ciobanu is the second candidate to the PSC to pass the Pre-Vetting Commission’s evaluation, after the government agent at the ECHR, Dumitru Obadă. Four other candidates did not pass the assessment because they withdrew from the competition or did not submit the 5-year declaration on time, and four candidates did not pass, following the full vetting process. Eight candidates are awaiting the Commission’s decisions.