Budget 2014…Reduced allocations would effectively strangle justice sector – Bond

Apr 08, 2014 News

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A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) James Bond, has accused the ruling administration of seeking to strangle the justice system in Guyana by reducing its allocations for this year.
Bond during his presentation to the 2014 Budget debates, yesterday, also called on Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, to establish a good working relationship with APNU’s chief Spokesperson on Finance, Carl Greenidge.
“Guyana would be all the better for it…Greenidge’s institutional memory must not be taken for granted; his intellectual prowess cannot be ignored.”

During his presentation to the House, Bond said that the reduced allocations “in totality have the collective effect of strangulating the sector and pegging back little gains achieved by the Justice Improvement Programme referred to as the Modernization of the Justice Administration System Project.
“This is a component of the Justice Sector Reform Strategy which saw US$25M pumped into the sector continuously since 2006.”
Justice Improvement
According to Bond, the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), if it was progressive, would have had another phase in the Justice Improvement Programme in place for this year to commence as soon as the 2013 phase would have concluded.
Bond, in his presentation to the debate, stated that the delivery of Justice to the Guyanese people ought to be a priority for any caring administration and its continuity would always be as a matter of course.
“It takes me to the logical conclusion, therefore, that the budgetary design for the judicial sector as adumbrated by the subject minister for 2014 is palpably flawed in principle and in effect…It is clear that the PPPC administration has little interest in curing the ills plaguing the sector; ills they have created and allowed to fester unchecked for two decades.”
He said that what Government prefers to do is to always paint a glorious picture of Guyana while ignoring the reality.
Legal Aid
According to Bond, “We can’t speak of access to justice without mentioning legal aid in the same breath.”
This critical department, he lamented, is budgeted to receive a paltry $44M. Further, the entity was forced to reduce its staff because of the unavailability of funds.
“The Guyana Legal Aid Clinic is the agency that was engineered to cater for the poor; but how can they cater for the poor when the PPP/C government refuses to cater for them and they in turn cannot cater for themselves…
“It is no wonder that in our poorer circles the PPP stands for ‘Punish Poor People’ and if we were to add the C, that C would stand for Continually.”
Bond noted that between 1994 and 2014 the Guyana Legal Aid Clinic has seen a clientele of 27,909 persons of which 19,599 were women and 8,310 were men.
“This shows that our women benefit most from this facility…What message is this Punish Poor People administration sending to our women when they refuse them access to Justice?”
Support
Bond also called for the support of Judges and Magistrates.
“We cannot speak of an increase in the compliment of Judges to reduce backlog without equipping them with the support staff they need to churn out decisions in a timely manner…This PPP/C Administration is forever guilty of pouring new wine in old bottles.”
According to Bond, “You can add 20 more Judges to your derelict system and the system will still be bogged down by the problems that beset it initially.”
He demanded that the quota of judges be increased to 35 judges to serve efficiently the three counties. “I demand on behalf of our Judges and Magistrates research assistants…I demand that a study be undertaken and completed within six months and its implementation immediately thereafter.”
Bond, a lawyer,  said that he is always slow to criticize “but I will tell the Guyanese people in all honesty that  Budget 2014 vision for the Justice Sector is primitive. “
According to Bond the 2014 Budget is laced with ad hoc policies and goals. He was adamant that “this sector is too important to be toyed with and that’s exactly what this budget does…It emasculates its human resources and impregnates with shortcomings physical mechanisms that are in themselves primitive.”
According to Bond, “By not addressing the output and inputs of the Justice Sector the PPPC administration cannot address the needs of the sector, cannot address wages and salaries, cannot address effective delivery of a professional service at the Registries and sub registries, cannot address a penetrable system where missing files are the regular, cannot address speedy delivery of justice and cannot make Justice more accessible.”

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