ALL missing files from the Police Prosecution Office in Suva will be reprocessed and duplicated.
Divisional Prosecution Officer Southern (DPO) Inspector Isikeli Raisuni made this statement yesterday when questioned on how they were addressing the issue of missing files when cases were presented to court.
Early this week, a case of robbery with violence involving Sosiveta Raura and Eparama Naqalou was going to be acquitted because their files went missing since May this year.
However, Insp Raisuni said some elements were involved when a file went missing from the prosecutions office.
He said it was either the adjournment date was wrongly slotted or there was miscommunication between court clerks and his staff.
"Sometimes we are caught by surprise when a case is called in court because they do not alert the prosecution," Insp Raisuni said.
"People need to see where we are coming from because really, we do not have enough resources to do our job well," he said.
"The files are not lost; they are misplaced because we do not have the manpower," he added.
Insp Raisuni said lawyers sometimes asked for an early date and prosecutors were not informed of the changes.
Since the beginning of the year, magistrates have given a lot of time for prosecutors to locate missing files.
In some cases, the accused had to be acquitted because files could not be located.