You're reading: Ukraine plans to lay off nearly half of prosecutors by early 2018

The number of prosecutors in Ukraine should be cut from 18,000 down to 10,000 before the end of 2017, says David Sakvarelidze, Ukraine's Deputy Prosecutor General.

“Today the Prosecutor’s Office is, regrettably, too closed and inflated an institution: we have a record-breaking number of prosecutors, even more than in Russia,” he told a conference titled, “The court reform: strategic planning and further steps” on June 15.

“We having decided, using the provisions laid down in the new law on prosecutors, to launch staff cuts, and the total number of prosecutors must not be over 10,000 before the end of 2017. Today, the figure is 18,500,” he added.

The first stage will involve a reform of district prosecutor’s offices that will be replaced by 178 local ones, he said. Local prosecutors and their deputies will be appointed on a competition basis, he said. “This is the first precedent … that ‘fresh blood’ is coming into the prosecutor’s office,” Sakvarelidze said.

This stage must be completed before December 15, 2015, following which re-organization of regional prosecutor’s offices will begin. Concurrently, there will be efforts to introduce an electronic document-management system.