The Chief priest of the Supreme Court, Justice Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh, has vehemently rejected the Judiciary’s 2024 budgetary allotment.
Legal pundits are beginning to wonder why the rule of law being a part of President Joseph Boakai’s ARREST Agenda and with the expectation to upheld the rule of law, the Judiciary will be receiving the lowest budge while the two branches of government receive the lion share of the budget?
Article 3 of the 1986 Constitution states, “Liberia is a unitary sovereign state divided into counties for administrative purposes. The form of government is Republican with three separate coordinate branches: the legislative, the Executive and Judiciary. Consistent with the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances, no person holding office in one of these branches shall hold office in or exercise any of the powers assigned to either of the other two branches except as otherwise provided in this Constitution and no person holding office in one of the said branches shall serve on any autonomous public agency.”
The Judiciary in a press release issued Wednesday June 5, 2024, said, it viewed the appropriation or allocation of US$17 million and one-off contingency amount of US$3 million which constitutes 2.8% of the national budget as an imposition by both Legislature and Executive Branches as a co-equal branches of the same government which it is not prepared to accept.
The Supreme Court said, it acknowledges and upholds the power bestowed upon the Legislature to “make appropriations for the fiscal governance of the Republic” as enshrined in Article 34(d) of the Liberian Constitution (1986).
The court said it has upheld the long standing principle of constitutional interpretation which states in part that, “The Constitution must be interpreted in light of the entire document rather than a sequestrated pronouncement, as every provision of the constitution is of equal importance. None of the provisions of the Constitution should be interpreted to nullify or substantially impair the other provisions.”
The released further indicated that it is within this legal context that Chapter VII of the Liberian Constitution and the supporting statuses within the New Judiciary Law impose a legal obligation upon the Judiciary Branch to effectively and efficiently manage the Supreme Court of Liberia and all of its administrative units, 22 Circuit Courts across the fifteenth political subdivision of the country along with judges and staff, 75 specialized courts across the 15 political subdivisions of this country with their judges and staff as well as 160 magisterial courts also across the fifteenth subdivisions of this country with their magistrates and staff in order to ensure that the rule of law prevails within the borders of the country.
The high court said the lack of adequate support to the Judiciary by government over the years have resulted to deteriorating infrastructures, lack of logistics and worsening conditions of service at the Judiciary and this is substantially impairing the duty of the Judiciary as mandated by the provisions of Chapter VII of the Liberian Constitution referred to Supra.
The release noted that in the spirit of coordination and cooperation, meeting were held with the leadership of the Legislature and the presidency prior to the passage of this year’s fiscal budget in which the Judiciary brought to the attention of its other two co-equal branches of the Liberian government that the constant violation of the financial Autonomy Act of the Judiciary law which consistently relegated an entire branch of government to a mere department under the Executive was not only undermining the rule of law in Liberia but also debasing a co-branch of government.
It appears evident, however, from the passage of the fiscal budget 2024, that both the Legislative and Executive Branches of the Liberian government are not prepared to regard the Judiciary as a co-equal Branch of the same government with attending needs as they have elected to appropriate a meager 2.8% of the national budget to the Judiciary whilst the same Legislative Branch allocates 13.84% to itself and 83.36% to the Executive Branch despite assurances made that such serious concerns of the Judiciary was going to be addressed even if not in its entirety.
The Judiciary views this as unfair, unjust and an attempt by the other two branches of government to further reduce the Liberian Judiciary to nothing; a condition unacceptable to the Liberian judiciary.
