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Slovak Republic

Create draft legislation to extend the right to recommend candidates for the post of Attorney-General. (SK0116)

Overview

At-a-Glance

Action Plan: Slovak Republic National Action Plan 2017-2019

Action Plan Cycle: 2017

Status: Active

Institutions

Lead Institution: Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice in cooperation with the Attorney-General

Support Institution(s): NA

Policy Areas

Legislation & Regulation, Public Participation

IRM Review

IRM Report: Slovakia Design Report 2017–2019

Starred: Pending IRM Review

Early Results: Pending IRM Review

Design i

Verifiable: Pending IRM Review

Relevant to OGP Values: Not Relevant

Potential Impact: Pending IRM Review

Implementation i

Completion: Pending IRM Review

Description

According to the current law42, proposals for the appointment of the Attorney-General are submitted by the Members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic ("the National Council") to the Speaker of the National Council, who assigns them to the Constitutional Committee of the National Council. The Constitu-tional Committee passes the proposal along with its opinion to the Speaker of the National Council who then schedules the proposal along with the opinion of the Constitutional Committee for the next meeting of the National Council. Members of the National Council vote for the candidate who is then proposed to the president for appointment. This method is not satisfactory because in the end result the nominee is chosen only by political parties and the nominee's selection process is subject to the political struggle.
Therefore, the right to propose candidates based on their professional qualities should be also granted to the representatives of legal professionals (such as the representatives of the professional chambers, the academic community, including prosecutors, and the public defender of rights). This requirement is also apparent from the report of the Venice Commission on European Standards relating to the Independence of the Judicial System, Part II - Prosecution43. In the opinion of the Attorney-General's Office, it is necessary to pay close attention to the circle of persons and entities who should have the right to recommend the candidates for the Attorney-General to the National Council. At the same time, the relevant parliamentary committee should keep the competence to decide which nominees will be submitted to the National Coun-cil for voting, but under strict conditions, so that unfair exclusion cannot occur.
Commitment No. 59: Create draft legislation to extend the right to recommend candidates for the post of Attorney-General.

IRM Midterm Status Summary

THEME - Improve prosecutors  
Comm 58, 59, 60, 61

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan[Note : The Office of the Plenipotentiary, “Open Government Partnership National Action Plan of the Slovak Republic 2017 – 2019”, http://bit.ly/2QYIlHV ]:

Commitment 58: “Prepare and submit to the Government a draft of the Act amending Act No. 154/2001 Coll. on prosecutors and Lawyers of the Public Prosecutor's, that will ensure the publication of the seat of office of individual prosecutors”.

Commitment 59: “Create draft legislation to extend the right to recommend candidates for the post of Attorney-General”.

Commitment 60: “In a participatory manner, conduct an analysis of disciplinary proceedings in prosecutors' affairs and create draft legislative changes in order to increase the transparency of these disciplinary proceedings.”

Commitment 61: “In a participatory manner, analyze the selection procedures for the prosecutor's office, including draft legislative changes, in order to increase their transparency.”

Start Date: Not specified                

End Date: 31 July 2018

 

Context and Objectives

According to the reports from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) the indictment rate was 18% in Slovakia 2017[Note : European Anti-Fraud Office, “The OLAF report 2017,” http://bit.ly/2Kw2EKQ ]. The EU average indictment rate was 42% in 2017. The Transparency International Slovakia informed that although there have been some improvements in punishing corruption, and for instance, the number of solved cases of bribery above a thousand euro has increased, the number of cases of grand corruption linked to high-level public officials has been continuously very low and enjoyed impunity[Note : Transparency International Slovakia, „Napriek zlepšeniu „veľké ryby“ stále nechytáme“ (Despite improvements we still do not catch ‘big fish’) http://bit.ly/2Tcb7d0 (in Slovak)]. Prosecutors, along with the police, play a crucial role in investigating and prosecuting cases of corruption, as they file indictments to courts. The Office of Special Prosecutor, which is responsible for ‘corruption agenda’, has accused the lowest number of people since 2009. As Transparency International concludes it might signalize that prosecutors overlook corruption cases[Note : Transparency International Slovakia, http://bit.ly/2BPtH0E (in Slovak)]. 

The latest report by the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO) and Council of Europe (CoE)[Note : Group of states against corruption and Council of Europe, “Second compliance report Slovak republic: Corruption prevention in respect of members of parliament, judges and prosecutors”, http://bit.ly/2BwFTDy] concluded that as regards prosecutors, “several developments are to be welcomed”. In particular, they praised the adoption of the Code of Ethics, an introduction of the obligation to declare gifts and liabilities above a certain threshold. GRECO and CoE also welcomed the amendment of the Act on prosecutors and prosecutors’ candidates[Note : SLOV-LEX (Legal and information portal), The Ministry of Justice, “The Act on prosecutors and prosecutor candidates no. 154/2001 Coll.”, http://bit.ly/2b7Pc1P (in Slovak).], which included an obligation to disclose publicly and regularly update a list of all prosecutors’ names on the website of the Prosecutor General’s Office. Since then the Prosecutor General’s Office has updated this list regularly with the latest update being made on 19 November 2018[Note : The list of prosecutors published on the website of the Prosecutor General’s Office, http://bit.ly/2aYKyk2 (in Slovak).]. The experts interviewed for the previous IRM report agreed that this was an important first step towards greater transparency and an achievement that would not be possible without OGP action plan in place[Note : Mária Žuffová, Open Government Partnership, “Slovakia Special Accountability Report 2014 - 2015”,  http://bit.ly/2EzH4Ws]. The public availability of prosecutors’ names also addressed the problem with access to affidavits and asset declarations. In addition to that, the Prosecutor General’s Office made available a tool for searching asset declarations by name on its website[Note : The tool for searching prosecutors’ asset declarations is available on the website of the Prosecutor General’s Office, http://bit.ly/2TJpO4s (in Slovak). ].

New commitments aimed at greater transparency, such as Commitment 58 to disclose the seat of prosecutors is useful and specific enough to be verified. Currently, the appointment of the Attorney General is political, as MPs propose the nominees. Commitment 59 to extend the right to propose nominees for the post of the Attorney General to legal professionals is a positive measure, which makes the appointment of the Attorney General less political. However, this commitment is not relevant to any of the OGP values of access to information, civic participation or public accountability.

The interviewed experts stated in the previous IRM report that the executive powers of the Attorney General should be reduced, and both selection and disciplinary procedures should be made more transparent[Note : Mária Žuffová, Open Government Partnership, “Slovakia Special Accountability Report 2014 - 2015”, http://bit.ly/2EzH4Ws

]. Commitments 60 and 61 to analyze selection and disciplinary procedures for prosecutors could potentially address these issues and help to trigger changes.  However, commitments do not specify how the analysis could be used and what the consequences of it would be, therefore the potential impact of these commitments is minor.  

Next steps

The IRM researcher recommends that the Prosecutor General’s Office makes the analyses on selection and disciplinary procedures publicly available and clarify how it will further use the findings.

Slovak Republic's Commitments

  1. Open Data Portal

    SK0058, 2017, Open Data

  2. Submit a draft law on data to the Government.

    SK0059, 2017, Legislation & Regulation

  3. public administration employee training

    SK0060, 2017, Capacity Building

  4. data publication standards

    SK0061, 2017, Capacity Building

  5. update open data portal

    SK0062, 2017, Open Data

  6. open data publication

    SK0063, 2017, Open Data

  7. open data awareness-raising

    SK0064, 2017, Open Data

  8. survey about open data

    SK0065, 2017, E-Government

  9. publish open data

    SK0066, 2017, Open Data

  10. analysis of open data

    SK0067, 2017, Open Data

  11. open data strategy

    SK0068, 2017, Open Data

  12. Develop standards for publicly available application programming interfaces and submit them to the Commission for the Standardization of Information Systems in Public Administration.

    SK0069, 2017, E-Government

  13. ensure open data publication

    SK0070, 2017, Open Data

  14. survey of public demand for Application Programming Interfaces

    SK0071, 2017, E-Government

  15. publish Application Programming Interfaces

    SK0072, 2017, Open Data

  16. Enable the disclosure of source code and development using open methods for newly developed plug-ins and extensions of web browsers and client applications.

    SK0073, 2017, Open Data

  17. custom-made information systems

    SK0074, 2017, Open Data

  18. publish open source software data

    SK0075, 2017, Open Data

  19. Study about open source software

    SK0076, 2017, Open Data

  20. Feasibility study on NGO satellite account

    SK0077, 2017, Civic Space

  21. Define the minimum scope and structure of the disclosed data on the use of Euro-pean structural and investment funds, the EEA Financial Mechanism, Norwegian Financial Mechanism, the Swiss Financial Mechanism and subsidy schemes from the state budget.

    SK0078, 2017, Aid

  22. publish financial data

    SK0079, 2017, Aid

  23. propose changes to Central Register of Contracts regulation

    SK0080, 2017, Legislation & Regulation

  24. Create space for the publication of local self-government (municipality) contracts in a single central repository.

    SK0081, 2017, Open Contracting and Procurement

  25. Establish and operate a repository of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic for storage, long-term archiving and access to educational resources.

    SK0082, 2017, E-Government

  26. open education Resources

    SK0083, 2017, E-Government

  27. Reach out to partners who have provided educational resources after 2008 to the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic or to its directly managed or-ganizations, with a suggestion to make educational resources available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public license.

    SK0084, 2017, E-Government

  28. enforce public licensing

    SK0085, 2017, Education

  29. make educational resources available in local langage

    SK0086, 2017, Education

  30. ensure availability of university textbooks

    SK0087, 2017, E-Government

  31. introduce specific rules for open publication and the obligation to provide free access of selected publicly funded publica-tions

    SK0088, 2017, E-Government

  32. Analyze the possibility of applying Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) public license as standard for selected works mandatorily published in the Central Registry of Theses and Dis-sertations.

    SK0089, 2017, E-Government

  33. awareness-raising about open education resources

    SK0090, 2017, E-Government

  34. Publish the outcomes of the approval process of educational resources on the web-site of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic.

    SK0091, 2017, E-Government

  35. To introduce the basic principles of Open Access to scientific publications under a public license under the Operational Program Research and Innovation.

    SK0092, 2017, E-Government

  36. Ensure the implementation of public license Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)

    SK0093, 2017, Open Data

  37. Establish Contact Office for Open Access.

    SK0094, 2017, Open Data

  38. Establish conditions for passportization of open research data under a public license and monitor its implementation in practice.

    SK0095, 2017, E-Government

  39. Establish and operate a repository to provide storage, long-term archiving and ac-cess to Slovak scientific and academic publications, research data and gray literature.

    SK0096, 2017, Open Data

  40. Design systematic benchmarking monitoring mechanisms for the measurement and comparison and propose further analyses related to acquiring, processing and re-use of research data and Open Access scientific publications.

    SK0097, 2017, E-Government

  41. raise awareness about Open Access in academic community

    SK0098, 2017, Education

  42. participate in international coordination on open education reforms

    SK0099, 2017, Education

  43. participatory public policy

    SK0100, 2017, E-Government

  44. citizen-traingin on public policy making

    SK0101, 2017, Capacity Building

  45. create engaging public policies

    SK0102, 2017, Capacity Building

  46. government employee peer-exchange

    SK0103, 2017, Capacity Building

  47. Evaluate identified participatory processes of creation and implementation of pub-lic policies and disseminate examples of good practice based on this evaluation.

    SK0104, 2017, Capacity Building

  48. Promote partnership and dialogue between public authorities, citizens and NGOs at national, regional and local level in the area of participatory public policy-making.

    SK0105, 2017, Capacity Building

  49. Propose a recommendation of internal guidelines on the use of free on-line tools in participatory creation of public policies.

    SK0106, 2017, Capacity Building

  50. Create learning tools in the field of participation.

    SK0107, 2017, Capacity Building

  51. Use educational tools about participation in formal education using informal learn-ing methods.

    SK0108, 2017, E-Government

  52. Develop recommendations for embedding participatory processes into organiza-tional processes, internal guidelines and other documents for the needs of central government bodies.

    SK0109, 2017, Capacity Building

  53. Reassess the implementation of the publication of assessments of judges in terms of the clarity and making further analysis easier

    SK0110, 2017, E-Government

  54. Specify which court decisions do not need to be published.

    SK0111, 2017, E-Government

  55. Standardize submission requirements for Slov-Lex portal

    SK0112, 2017, Capacity Building

  56. draft legislation about the responsibility of judges

    SK0113, 2017, E-Government

  57. draft legislation to ensure public scrutiny of judges

    SK0114, 2017, Judiciary

  58. Prepare legislation that will ensure the publication of the seat of office of individual prosecutors

    SK0115, 2017, E-Government

  59. Create draft legislation to extend the right to recommend candidates for the post of Attorney-General.

    SK0116, 2017, Legislation & Regulation

  60. participatory analysis of prosecutor's affairs

    SK0117, 2017, E-Government

  61. In a participatory manner, analyze the selection procedures

    SK0118, 2017, Justice

  62. awareness-raising about anti-social activities

    SK0119, 2017, Legislation & Regulation

  63. Analyze and evaluate preliminary information and reports on public participation in the process of drafting and commenting on draft legislation.

    SK0120, 2017, E-Government

  64. Analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of the Electronic Collective Petition.

    SK0121, 2017, E-Government

  65. Identify the person responsible for implementing the tasks of the OGP National Action Plan 2017-2019 in the organization.

    SK0122, 2017, E-Government

  66. Coordinate the Working Group on the implementation of the OGP National Action Plan 2017-2019.

    SK0123, 2017, OGP

  67. Develop the final evaluation of the OGP National Action Plan 2017-2019.

    SK0124, 2017, E-Government

  68. Prepare and submit for the Government of the Slovak Republic the OGP National Action Plan for the following period.

    SK0125, 2017, E-Government

  69. List of open data datasets

    SK0023, 2015, E-Government

  70. Publish open data

    SK0024, 2015, E-Government

  71. Survey of open data

    SK0025, 2015, Open Data

  72. Publish relevant open datasets

    SK0026, 2015, E-Government

  73. Starred commitment open data publication strategy

    SK0027, 2015, Open Data

  74. Grant scheme open data portal

    SK0028, 2015, E-Government

  75. web portal promotion campaign

    SK0029, 2015, E-Government

  76. Evaluate grant funding open data application

    SK0030, 2015, E-Government

  77. Digital education resources

    SK0031, 2015, Education

  78. Map existing repositories

    SK0032, 2015, Education

  79. Analyze procurement process for education resources

    SK0033, 2015, E-Government

  80. Textbook procurement process

    SK0034, 2015, E-Government

  81. Pilot procurement process

    SK0035, 2015, E-Government

  82. Raise awareness of education resources

    SK0036, 2015, Education

  83. Join multilateral activities in Europe and beyond that support the creation, improvement, sharing and re-use of open educational resources.

    SK0037, 2015, Education

  84. Map existing scientific repositories

    SK0038, 2015, Open Data

  85. Identify barriers to open data access

    SK0039, 2015, Open Data

  86. Submit analysis of open data publication

    SK0040, 2015, Open Data

  87. data publication mechanism

    SK0041, 2015, E-Government

  88. Raise awareness about Open Access in academic community

    SK0042, 2015, Capacity Building

  89. Assist other countries with open access strategy

    SK0043, 2015, E-Government

  90. participatory policy-making

    SK0044, 2015, Public Participation

  91. Workshops on public involvement in policymaking

    SK0045, 2015, Capacity Building

  92. Starred commitment Develop public policy with civil society

    SK0047, 2015, Civic Space

  93. Starred commitment develop criteria for evaluating participation in policymaking

    SK0048, 2015, Public Participation

  94. Evaluate policy creation

    SK0049, 2015, Public Participation

  95. map legislative environments

    SK0050, 2015, Legislature

  96. Carry out a public campaign to promote the Collective Electronic Petitions.

    SK0051, 2015, Capacity Building

  97. publish evaluation of justices

    SK0052, 2015, Judiciary

  98. Analyze publication of judicial decisions

    SK0053, 2015, Judiciary

  99. Uniform reporting of judicial decisions

    SK0054, 2015, Judiciary

  100. publish list of names of prosecutors

    SK0055, 2015, Judiciary

  101. Final evaluation of OGP action plan

    SK0056, 2015, OGP

  102. Develop next action plan

    SK0057, 2015, OGP

  103. Starred commitment Open Data Portal Launch

    SK0001, 2012, Open Data

  104. Publishing Datasets

    SK0002, 2012, Open Data

  105. Datasets Mapping

    SK0003, 2012, Open Data

  106. Data Standards

    SK0004, 2012, Open Data

  107. Improved Register of Contracts

    SK0005, 2012, Fiscal Transparency

  108. Starred commitment Continuous Dataset Publising

    SK0006, 2012, Open Data

  109. Starred commitment ITMS Dataset

    SK0007, 2012, Open Data

  110. EU Funds and Subsidies Monitoring

    SK0008, 2012, Fiscal Transparency

  111. EU Funds and Subsidies Monitoring – Prepare Tender for Web Application

    SK0009, 2012, Open Contracting and Procurement

  112. EU Funds and Subsidies Monitoring – Portal Launch

    SK0010, 2012, E-Government

  113. Participatory Policy Making

    SK0011, 2012, Capacity Building

  114. Starred commitment Apply Participatory Policy Making

    SK0012, 2012, Public Participation

  115. Lawmaking Public Participation Rules

    SK0013, 2012, Legislation & Regulation

  116. Participatory Policy Making

    SK0014, 2012, Public Participation

  117. Collective e-Petitions

    SK0015, 2012,

  118. Collective e-Petitions – Draft Amendment

    SK0016, 2012, Legislation & Regulation

  119. OGP Steering Committee

    SK0017, 2012, OGP

  120. Transparency Council and Openess Barometer

    SK0018, 2012, Capacity Building

  121. Develop criteria for Transparency Council and Openess Barometer

    SK0019, 2012, Capacity Building

  122. Conduct First Evaluation Using Openess Barometer

    SK0020, 2012, Capacity Building

  123. Whistleblowers Protection Act

    SK0021, 2012, Legislation & Regulation

  124. 2014-2015 Action Plan Development

    SK0022, 2012, OGP