AFC supports elevation of Judiciary to financial autonomy
The elevation of Guyana judiciary’s status to that of an independent entity has been welcomed by the opposition Alliance for Change (AFC), a move which, according to party leader Khemraj Ramjattan, took “13 long years” to be implemented. This, the politician added, may not have happened without persuasion and pressure from the Opposition during consideration of the 2014 budget estimates recently.
AFC leader, Khemraj Ramjattan
Ramjattan disclosed this at a press conference yesterday which was held at Side Walk CafÉ, and commended it as the successful re-positioning of the judiciary from a budget agency under the control of the Ministry of Finance, to that of an independent entity with overarching financial autonomy. The AFC Parliamentarian declared that the government had ‘evaded and avoided this Constitutional configuration because it wanted overall control of the finances of the judiciary, and, as to how it should be disbursed.’ He added, “This year, however, a motion moved by Carl Greenidge, financial spokesman of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and seconded by (Khemraj) Ramjattan, effectuated the new dispensation so as to bring it into conformity with the constitutional amendment of 2001.” This new dispensation will mean that each year’s budgetary allocation for the judiciary as prepared by the Chancellor and his team, will now go directly to the National Assembly for approval, and not, as was the case before, to the Ministry of Finance for such approval. The 13-year period alluded to by the AFC Leader is a reference to when the fight for reform began, in 2001, and when victory was claimed earlier this week. The judiciary’s status, elevated to one of independent rank by Article 222A, is to be financed as a direct charge on the Consolidated Fund, determined as a lump sum by way of an annual subvention approved by the National Assembly. “It also means that bureaucratic setbacks for the issuance and clearance of monies for the judiciary will now be negligible, as there will be no ministerial discretion for disbursements,” Ramjattan asserted. The AFC, he said, sees this new institutional arrangement as a practical endeavour to secure more independence for the judiciary, and making more rigid that separation of powers without which a constitutional democracy is made all the more vulnerable. In February of this year, the National Assembly passed an APNU-tabled motion that would see the third schedule of the Constitution amended to allow the judiciary, the status of financial autonomy, among several other entities.