The Attorney General of the Republic Mr. George Savvidis and the Assistant Attorney General Mr. Savvas Angelides had a meeting with the Lawyers of the Republic serving in all provinces today, thus continuing their contacts with the staff of all levels of the Legal Service.
The purpose of the meeting, which took place at noon in the auditorium of the Press and Information Office, was for the legal officers to be informed in more detail about the most important changes that have taken place in the way the Legal Service operates and carries out its work since the new leadership took office and to witness the upcoming changes that have been initiated and are being implemented on the basis of short-, medium- and long-term schedules.
Changes which, as the Attorney General pointed out, create the infrastructure for the future course of the Legal Service and aim to make it a flexible and modern organisation, capable of responding more effectively, more directly and more quickly to the huge range and volume of work it is called upon to carry out on a daily basis.
These changes concern five pillars, namely. [*]Process for the construction of a privately owned building. [*]Promote the filling of vacancies at all levels of the hierarchy. [*]Rapid response of the Legal Service to its work and completion of all outstanding cases. [*]Enhancing productivity, creating a new structure and reallocating work.
According to the Attorney General, one of the most important changes made during the period that the present leadership has been at the helm of the Legal Service is the reorganization of the Criminal Division and the Civil Division of the Legal Service, the creation of sub-sectors on the basis of subject matter/specialisation, the reallocation of tasks to legal officers on the basis of specialisation and the revision of internal procedures in such a way as to reduce bureaucracy and the expenditure of resources.
And the strengthening of the administrative structure of the Legal Service, which the Attorney General said has worked to ensure that operational issues are resolved at the administrative level, with decisions being taken promptly, and the introduction of internal procedures and controls, are also changes that have helped the institution to function more smoothly so that key challenges arising from the vast range of responsibilities of the Legal Service can be addressed.
Particular attention was also paid by the Attorney General to the issue of filling vacancies in the Service, with Mr. Savvidis noting that already, through the actions of the Legal Service's management, a number of vacancies in the Budget have been filled in the positions of Senior Attorney of the Republic and Attorney of the Republic I. Temporary needs are covered by the recruitment of a number of lawyers, on the basis of temporary employment and purchase of services.
He also added that he considers very important element of the work of the Legal Service the participation of its officials in the sessions of the Parliamentary Committees during the discussion of important legislative proposals, hence the participation of the Lawyers of the Republic in them, a practice that was not followed before.
In relation to the promoted changes and with regard to the technical support-digitisation pillar, the Attorney General said that an amount in excess of EUR 1 million has been secured from the Recovery and Resilience Plan for the electronic upgrading of the Legal Service, which, he pointed out, will be spent on the creation and installation of a specialised case and document management system for the Legal Service, with the tender currently underway. He also noted that the Legal Service website has been redesigned to be user-friendly and is already operational.
In relation to the acquisition of a new, privately owned building, Mr. Savvidis said that despite the actions taken to co-locate all the officials of the Nicosia district in the same surrounding area, which helped in various ways in the work of the legal officials, the construction of a new, state-of-the-art Legal Service building will definitively solve the major housing problem that exists. "By concentrating all functions in one building, economies of scale will be served, a smoother operation will be ensured and resources, financial and otherwise, will be saved," he said. To this end and following a decision by the Council of Ministers in January 2022, the construction of the new building has been initiated, with the close cooperation of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, and an architectural competition will be launched soon. The timetable for completion of the construction, after the completion of the architectural competition, has been set at 3 years. Actions for the creation of new offices in Larnaca district, to serve the Larnaca and Famagusta districts, and for the relocation of officials to the Paphos district are also underway.
Referring to the advancement and increase in the number of staff, Mr Savvidis said that the aim is to fill all vacancies in the structure of the Legal Service soon and to advertise positions for new entrants. He noted that in order to address the problem of filling the vacancies of prosecutors that currently exist in the budget of the Legal Service, a proposal to amend the legislation has been forwarded to the Ministry of Finance in order to finally resolve the problem.
The autonomy of the Legal Service is a matter of capital importance for the heads of the Legal Service, the Attorney General then said, stressing the importance of the aspects that will be satisfied by its implementation. For this reason, the bill providing for the structure, organization and operation of the Legal Service has been updated and is currently before the Ministry of Finance to be forwarded to the Council of Ministers and then to the Parliament for approval.
Finally, Mr. Savvidis referred to the complete reorganization of the Legal Service and the rationalization of its structure, so that the very large, diverse and serious challenges that the Legal Service of the State is facing today can be managed more effectively.
Addressing the issue of delays and stressing that he considered the delay observed on some issues as unacceptable, he said that a plan of action has been decided on for the existing pending issues of the Legal Service with the aim of clearing them as soon as possible. He concluded by saying that "the aim is that new requests for opinions and legislative review forwarded to the Legal Service should be answered within a short, regular period of time."
"Both the Assistant Attorney General and I are proud to lead such a nerve-racking and essential service. I am sure you feel the same way. We are impressed with the quality and competence of our officers. The only problem is the speed of processing. I would like to ask you to share with us our vision to make our Service stand out. And rest assured that when we achieve it, we will feel many times more proud," he concluded.
The briefing concluded with a constructive exchange of views from the legal officers.
(MΛ)
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