By Precious D. Freeman
The president of the Liberian National Bar Association, Sylvester Rennie, says if President Joseph Boakai wants a functional Judiciary void of corruption, the government must allocate at least US$25 million to that branch of government.
The Liberian National Bar Association condemned the recent budget allotted to the Judiciary Branch in the tone of US17million as being insufficient and unrealistic.
President Boakai in his first state of the Nation address in January of this year said “Our justice system which is meant to protect the innocent and punish the guilty, has been marred by inefficiency, corruption, and lack of public trust.”
Even though President Boakai has the rule of law in his ARREST Agenda, the rule of law in less than a year under his administration is gradually going down the drain, the Bar averred.
In a news conference held at the head office of the LNBA in Monrovia, Cllr. Rennie said, the Bar is disappointed and surprised over the budgetary allocation made to the Judiciary.
The head of the LNBA expressed that for so long the Judiciary been treated in the past as an ordinary agency of government adding that when it had to do with budgetary allocations which undermined and impeded the activities of the courts and other functionaries of the judiciary.
The LNBA further stated that out of a total budget appropriations of FY-2024 of US$738,859,837, the Judiciary is allotted US$17,000,000 which is very inadequate to address some of the pressing challenges faced by the Judiciary which include construction of judicial complexes in some of our counties amongst others.
The Bar said the rule of law is a pivotal pillar under the ARREST Agenda of the Boakai’s administration and to subject or allot such a very budget for a branch of government, which has competing compelling priorities, while ordinary agencies under the Executive Branch are allotted more money in their budgets; adding that this is a disservice to the rule of law sector which undermines access to justice.
Cllr. Rennie further stated that most magisterial court in the country are presided over by non-lawyers and in order to for lawyers to be attracted to serve in these positions, the necessary incentives must be provided by the Judiciary.
He explained that these incentives are supposed to be provided for within the budget of the Judiciary and if they are not provided, it becomes difficult for the Judiciary to attract the caliber of lawyers to serve in these positions.
“There are Debt, Probate, Tax and sexual offenses Courts that are established in all counties but only a few of those courts have judges while, and the others do not have due to budgetary allocation.
This has caused the dockets of the circuit courts around the country to be overcrowded because the circuit judges have to assume jurisdictions over these various courts,” the Bar president said.
“In order to have a more functional Judiciary, there must be realistic budgetary appropriations made to the Judicial Branch to enable that branch of government render the kind of judicial services expected of it,” the LNBA stated.
The Bar asserted that it wonders why there is a huge gap between the amounts allocated to the three branches of government which are equal under the law even though separate but coordinate.
There is segregation when it comes to appropriating amounts for each entity’s budget with the Judiciary budget always being the lowest.
