Prosecutorial Operations of the Office of the DPP

I then proceeded to meet with Ms. Victoria Engel SC, first female Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Mr. John Masters, Chair of the ACT Bar Criminal Law Committee. I was joined by YB William Leong, YB Datuk Awang bin Hashim and other senior officials from the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department and the Attorney-General’s Chambers. 

We discussed at length, for over an hour, the prosecutorial operations of the Office of the DPP at the state level, their independence from the Attorney-General, financing and budgeting, and delegation of prosecutions to the private bar. 

Further, our discussions centered around the extent of the professional working relationship between the Attorney-General and the DPP.  

This was indeed a truly insightful discussion, inputs from which I believe is certain to inform our decision-making process on the separation of the roles of the Attorney-General and the Public Prosecutor in Malaysia.