Science ministry rewrites post office staff rules as prosecution service splits

The science ministry said Friday it revised the personnel rules for staff at privately run post offices, aligning them with the new criminal justice system that abolishes the prosecution service and creates two separate bodies in its place.

The Ministry of Science and ICT published the partial amendment to the Private Post Office Employee Personnel Rules, which took effect the same day. Disciplinary grounds previously tied to the prosecution service or police now cite the Public Prosecution Office — including its regional and district branches — alongside the Serious Crime Investigation Agency and police, and requests to confirm disciplinary grounds will be directed to the heads of the Board of Audit and Inspection, the Serious Crime Investigation Agency, the National Police Agency and other investigative bodies. The amendment also covers the payment of honorary retirement allowances, replacing a reference to the prosecution in that provision with the Public Prosecution Office.

The broader reorganization places the prosecution office under the justice minister and the investigation agency under the interior minister, separating investigators and prosecutors institutionally. The legislation establishing the two bodies, the Public Prosecution Office Act and the Act on the Organization and Operation of the Serious Crime Investigation Agency, was enacted alongside an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law. The ministry said the changes were needed because references to the prosecution service remained in the rules even after the criminal procedure law was amended to reflect the new system.