The Parliament passed with its first hearing on September 12 a constitutional amendment envisaging merger of the General Prosecutor’s Office (GPO) with the Justice Ministry.

A lawmaker from the ruling party Pavle Kublashvili, the chairman of the parliamentary committee for legal issues, said that as a result of this amendment, GPO will take its “natural place” in the structure of the executive government and the parliament will have “more levers” to oversee its activities.

GPO was part of the judicial system before it was granted with a separate status in 2004 following a constitutional amendment.

MP Kublashvili also said that if currently the Parliament only has the right to give or not to give its consent to appointing a General Prosecutor and “there is no political control on the prosecutor’s office, as a result of the mentioned amendment, the legislative body will constantly supervise the activities of the prosecutor’s office, as it occurs in case of other ministries.”

Lawmakers from the parliamentary minority describes the ruling party’s arguments as “unconvincing”, saying that this amendment would have the same negative influence on the development of democratic processes in the country, as it occurred in case of merger of the Interior and Security Ministries.

“We do not support this amendment,” MP Gia Tsagareishvili said on behalf of the parliamentary minority.

The parliamentary minority claims that this amendment would increase the President’s powers. 

According to the new law on prosecutor’s office, which is enclosed to the constitutional amendments, the merged structure will be led by a person who will be simultaneously a Justice Minister and the name of the new position will be Justice Minister-General Prosecutor.

A person on the post, like other ministers, will be nominated by the Prime Minister, through the agreement with the President, while the latter will have an exclusive right to dismiss him.

Justice Minister–General Prosecutor will be a policy-maker in the field of prosecutor’s office and will be authorized to make key decisions, including those about initiating criminal charges against top officials such as president, cabinet members, ombudsman and judges.

The new agency, which will be set up as a result of the merger, will also have a post of Chief Prosecutor, who will be appointed or dismissed by the President.

A Chief Prosecutor’s functions are limited “to organizational-procedural activities” and the post will not accountable to the parliament. “A Chief Prosecutor is not political decision-maker [like a Justice Minister-General Prosecutor],” Gia Khuroshvili, the government’s parliamentary secretary, said during discussions in the Parliament. A person on the post, he said, would be more like a manager who is in charge of operation of the prosecutor’s office.

The fate of the Penitentiary System, National Forensics Bureau and Public Attorney Service, which are parts of the Justice Ministry, is also a matter of dispute and further consultations.

Under the amendment, the Penitentiary System along with the National Probation Service should be established as an independent agencies and subordinate to the President directly. The sponsors of the amendment have a similar approach towards the National Forensics Bureau.    

The Public Attorney Service, according to the draft, remains under the Justice Ministry subordination, which the parliamentary minority said, would trigger conflict of interests in the system, as the prosecution and the advocacy would be under the same structure.

“We will continue to discuss this issue and agree on the forms of future functioning of these services by the second hearing,” MP Kublashvili said.