POOR and incomplete Garda files and long delays in providing Garda forensic reports are seriously hampering the DPP's work, according to a Department of Finance report.
The report calls for greater training for the Garda in handling prosecutions and says the whole process of handling criminal prosecutions in Ireland "lacks transparency and obvious accountability".
The report arises from a review by the Department of Finance which began in late 1995 following requests from the DPP for extra staff.
It generally exonerates the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions from blame for delays in making decisions on whether to initiate prosecutions. "In cases where the incoming file was complete, or near complete, directions were generally issued in a very speedy manner, typically in days rather than weeks."
But the report identifies a catalogue of delays and mistakes outside the Office, and these contribute to considerable inefficiency in the criminal prosecution system, it says.
The report sharply criticises the quality of files received from the Garda, some of which contained elementary errors". These included files stating that alleged offences had occurred on dates which had not yet arrived, files with statements missing, and typing errors.
The quality of files "ranged from impeccably prepared and presented down to the very unsatisfactory".
In addition "very long periods may elapse between the initial crime incident and the submission of the Garda file, even in cases where suspects have been quickly identified.
Once completed, a Garda file is usually first sent to the State Solicitor for the area or, in Dublin, the Chief State Solicitor.
While the Chief State Solicitor generally passes files on to the DPP quickly, this happens "without any analysis of the report for completeness by the solicitor."
The main cause in delays in decisions by the DPP was "in most cases, a consequence of the need to go back and seek further information before a decision was possible. . . Generally speaking responses to these queries raised by the DPP took a long time before they were returned - weeks or months rather than days." In some of these cases, gardai "could not reasonably have been expected to have foreseen the need for some of this information."
The report also highlights "long delays in the provision of forensic reports" which contributed to delays in decisions on whether to proceed with a prosecution.
When forensic reports or responses to queries finally arrive, legal assistants in the DPP's office may have to re read the entire file before recommending a course of action, due to the time lapse.
"In complex or extended cases such as fraud, the file of documentation will be feet (and not inches) thick".