Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) is in an “emergency situation,” as a court order forces it to replace 2,000 employees in two weeks.
According to acting Prosecutor General Guillermo Mendoza, his office is not in “crisis,” but “we have a very particular emergency.”
The situation follows an order by the Supreme Court that obligates the PG’s Office to immediately incorporate 2,000 people who passed competence exams two years ago and were supposed to have replaced employees who do not have these diplomas.
The PG’s Office had ignored an earlier court order to replace the personnel.
The immediate sacking of 2,000 employees is generating dramas and may lead to a number of court cases being delayed because suspects who are now in jail will be freed, as prosecutors won’t be able to comply with the legal time limits within which a suspect must be taken to court.
“There has been a rout in the past two days and some units are practically headless, without anyone controlling or managing the office. Moreover, the subordinates who would take responsibility normally can’t take the responsibility, because they also have to leave.”
The Supreme Court ruling follows a lawsuit by one of the 2,000 who had taken the competence test, but was not rewarded with a job in the Prosecutor General’s Office.
