[ad_1]
In an open letter to President Sebastián Piñera, officials from the State Defense Council (CDE) represented their “Concern and dismay” over the appointment of the former Minister of Defense, Alberto Espina as counselor of the organization.
In the letter sent to the president, the National Association of Lawyers of the CDE and the National Association of Officials of the CDE, stated that the appointment of Espina is made “Ignoring the civil service career but, above all, neglecting technical criteria in the provision of the position.”
“During the last few years, we have seen how the appointment of high-ranking officials of this Service has been publicly questioned, who are in charge of the important mission of defending the interests of the State / Treasury -mainly before the courts of justice- over the interests of the administration that chooses them, “the letter adds.
Immediately, the CDE officials state that “This new appointment calls into question the consideration of technical reasons for the election of the members of the Council and it gives rise to more criticisms regarding the formation of this body. That is why we have a duty to express our opinion. Without ignoring the current legal power of the President of the Republic to appoint counsel counsel, we believe that it must be exercised respecting essential aspects, which we have repeatedly claimed ”.
In another paragraph of the letter sent to Piñera, the officials and lawyers of the state body point out that “the State Defense Council is a purely technical service. In this line, counseling lawyers, attending to their tasks and position profile, They must be able to personally assume the judicial defense of those causes of greater relevance to the State and Treasury of Chile. The Organic Law of the Council, in its article 38, requires that Counselors must have a lawyer’s degree and a professional experience of at least 15 years ”.
They add that “Said professional experience cannot be other than that of a litigant lawyer or outstanding academic, these competences being essential to hold the position, in order to assume either the litigation or technical advisory functions in a serious, competent manner and devoid of non-legal considerations, in the modalities established in the Organic Law of the CDE itself. The State Defense Council is currently made up of a group of lawyers. with vast professional experience, litigants recognized in the forum and a life devoted to the Service, who fully comply with the legal requirements and proven competencies to assume and adequately exercise the position of counselor ”.
Then, in another part of the document they state that “even so, although it is possible that, the exercise of the power given to the President of the Republic, matters the selection of a professional who responds to that profile and who is not a current member of the institution, It seems to us at least questionable that such an appointment falls on who was recently a member of his political team; This encourages the apprehensions and objections of the citizenry in order that the appointments are oriented towards a retribution of political loyalty, and not the selection on merit, which is what this Institution demands and deserves. The foregoing denotes that this new appointment is unequivocally shown as a gesture destined to bury the “meritocratic promise” of which so much is spoken and with which – as is usual – in campaign times it seeks to conquer the illusion and hope of the voters ”.
Then they state that “it is a great paradox that it was the incumbent President himself who, in May of this year, entered the Honorable National Congress a bill (Message No. 062-368) intended to” modernize “the CDE, by deficiencies in the mechanism for appointing directors have been detected, noting that it was essential “To ensure the technical expertise and professional rigor of the counselor, which safeguards the judicial defense of the interests of the State.”
Finally, the CDE staff states that “the message of the project itself adds that: ‘For the election of the counselor, the experience and professional specialization in national and international litigation, advice in extrajudicial matters and in academia, must be valued. prestige among his peers and his commitment to the profession; so that the best talents can contribute to the development of the institution ‘. None of this is displayed in the recent designation. In sum, the officials of the State Defense Council are concerned about the politicization of our institution, the ignorance of the merit of the professionals that make it up and the contempt of the Service in the exercise of its functions and in the face of the citizenry ”.
