E/CN.4/1997/7/Add.3 page 14 administration of justice, in particular the problem of judicial delays, easily leads to situations in which, as soon as the proceedings are starting to make headway, the judge orders prescription of the penal action. 45. When the Special Rapporteur raised this problem, the President of the Supreme Court of Justice and the Minister of Justice said that they were in favour of the offence of torture being appropriately criminalized, pursuant to the relevant provision of the Constitution. The Special Rapporteur believes that the legislation in this area should be aligned on international instruments, in particular the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which Venezuela is a party. 11 C. Legislation and procedure 46. Pursuant to article 6 of the Public Prosecutor's Office Organization Act, the Office is responsible for initiating the appropriate proceedings to enforce the civil, criminal, administrative or disciplinary responsibility incurred by public officials in exercise of their duties. In addition, under article 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office is bound to report to the competent tribunals any offences committed in his jurisdiction by public officials in the performance of their duties, or for reasons connected with their office, and any individual may bring charges against them. Article 374 also states that in such cases, and provided that the official has committed the act in question in the performance of his duties, any judge hearing the case would be asked to (information) procedure. conduct an información de nudo hecho 47. Pursuant to these provisions, when a representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office learns of an alleged case of torture, he is bound to conduct preliminary investigations with the police force concerned and to order a medical examination to verify the nature of the injuries. Once that verification has been completed, the next step is to ask the judge to initiate the nudo hecho procedure. According to an official letter of the 12 Attorney-General's Office, this special procedure initiates a series of legal steps, through a court, which are indispensable as a basis for bringing charges against a public official. These steps are as follows: (a) Determining whether those alleged to be responsible for an offence are indeed public officials, through certification issued by the competent authority regarding the relevant appointment, acceptance of post and oath of office; (b) Establishing, in the event, whether the offence was committed by the official in the exercise of his duties, through appropriate certification issued by the competent authority; (c) Establishing whether the person allegedly responsible for the offence being investigated has continued, after commission of the offence, to exercise the same public office he held at the time the alleged offence was committed.