Of the 2,376 prosecutors and investigators affiliated with the Prosecution Service who applied for special appointments to the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, 615 withdrew their applications.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety said in a media notice on the 1st that "the total number of applicants for this special appointment to the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency has been finalized at 1,761," adding, "Of the initial 2,376 applicants, 615 withdrew."
Earlier, the launch preparation team for the Serious Crimes Investigation Agency accepted applications for special appointments from Aug. 7 to 20 from prosecutors and investigators affiliated with the Prosecution Service, and a total of 2,376 people applied.
The agency's authorized staffing is 2,874, including 307 in the general service. Based on the number of applicants alone, that fills only 61% of the authorized staffing.
The launch preparation team also said it does not plan to appoint all applicants. It said it will select the actual appointees this month after considering preferred duty stations, career history, and expertise.
The launch preparation team said, "To ensure there are no setbacks to the launch, we plan to proceed in parallel with career-competitive recruitment for police officers, attorneys, certified public accountants, and patent attorneys, and with additional special appointment procedures for Prosecution Service (Public Prosecution Service) officials, through Apr. 30 next year."
The Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, starting Oct. 2 this year, is an agency that investigates seven major crime areas: corruption, economic crimes, defense procurement, narcotics, state-protection crimes such as insurrection and foreign-exchange crimes, cybercrime, and the crime of distorting the law.