Over the weekend, the Supreme Court of Liberia threatened to shutdown government operations and also strike down budget law if the two other branches of government remain on unresponsive to their concerns regarding the appropriations of the mega 2.8% of the national budget to the Judiciary Branch of Government.
On July 19, 2024, Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene G. Yuoh on behalf of her colleagues, made the statement during at a press conference held at the Supreme Court Chambers in the presence of judges and some lawyers including the Liberia National Bar Association (LNBA) President Cllr. Sylvester D. Rennie.
Chief Justice Yuoh threatened to hinder the operations of the government as head of the Judiciary Branch.
The Liberian Chief Justice said she is fully cognizant of the powers of the judicial to review and the constitutional powers to strike down any law which runs contrary to the 1986 Constitution or any other existing statue such as the budget law.
According to Justice Yuoh, they have staged their actions in the spirit of cooperation and coordination amongst the three branches of government.
‘Unfortunately, we must be constrained to take actions to compel compliance to include but not limited to Article 2 of the 1986 Constitution,” she said.
Advising, she furthered that if the situation is not addressed immediately by President Joseph Nyumah Boakai and the leadership of the Legislature to avoid constitutional crisis, her bench will not accept such treatment of indifferences and imposition from their co-equals of the government.
Chief Justice Yuoh stated that at the beginning of the budget process the Supreme Court submitted budget estimated US$31 million to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning for inclusion in the National Budget.
But contrary to the act, Justice Yuoh said without any legal authority and reference to the Supreme Court, the Minister of Finance and Development Planning disregarded the budget estimated and instead submitted a different budget estimate of US$17 million to the Legislature for the Judiciary.
“The Legislature upon passage of the budget, appropriated a contingent amount of US$3 million which the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning termed as one-off/non-recurrent appropriation meant only for judges’ benefits.
The Liberian Chief Justice mentioned that the amount of US$17 million plus the one-off/non-recurrent amount of US$3 million contingent constituting 2.8% of the national budget was rejected by the Supreme Court at the meeting of the three Branches of Government convened by President Boakai.
The Chief Justice explained that during the meeting, President Boakai mandated that an upward review of the Judiciary Budget be done in accordance with the referenced law quoted.
According to her, it was agreed upon by the Legislature for which the Speaker of the House of Representatives committed to have the ways and means, Finance and House of Representatives and Budget Committees of both Houses met with the technical team of the Judiciary to recast the Judiciary’s budget within two weeks as of the date of that meeting.
Chief Justice Yuoh noted, “Sadly, it has been far over five weeks since that meeting and no one from either the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning or the relevant committees of the Legislature has followed up with the Judiciary as was agreed upon by all present at that meeting.”
She said on July 5, 2024, just over a week ago, the Supreme Court again took the liberty to write to the President as head of government expressing its utmost disappointment and dismay about the situation which is contrary to the spirit of the tripartite meeting held on June 23, 2024.
“This posture of the Legislature and Executive leaves us to wonder if indeed the commitment made at the meeting to have the tree branches of government work in coordination, collaboration and mutual respect to uphold the rule of law is sincere” Chief Justice Yuoh wondered.
More importantly, Justice Yuoh said the Public Procurement and Concession Commission has refused to approved the procurement plan of the Judiciary which was drawn up based on the original estimates submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning; as such, leaving the operations of the courts throughout the country including the Supreme Court stranded.
“At this point, the Judiciary is unable to procure any operational materials to facilitate the travel of judges to their assigned circuits for the ensuing August Term of court which is scheduled to officially open on August 12, 2024, and more importantly, the present budgetary appropriations provides the no opportunity to restore the judges’ salaries which is an issue pending before this court,” she said.
It can be recalled that upon the passage of the 2024 fiscal budget in which the Liberian Judiciary was appropriated an amount of US$17 Million and one-off contingency amount of US$3 million, which total amount constitutes a meager 2.8% of the National Budget, the budget through the Supreme Court, rejected said budget and viewed the appropriations of US$17 million as an imposition by both the Legislative and Executive Branches of Government on a co-equal Branch of the same government.
The Full Bench of the Supreme Court subsequently brought this to the attention of President Joseph Nyumah Boakai as head of government of the Republic, predicated upon which President Boakai convened a meeting amongst the three branches of the government on Sunday, June 23, 2024 to address the budgetary issue among other issues relating to the other two branches.
At the same time, the President of the LNBA Cllr. Sylvester D. Rennie said he is in support of the Supreme Court Justices statement. Cllr. Rennie said, it is saddens that lawyers in some court will even put funding together to assist the court in purchasing some materials for the operations which far below the belt.
“If the rule of law will prevail, President Joseph Nyumah Boakai must put his feet down hard and do the necessary things the Judiciary is requesting,” Cllr. Rennie added. He furthered that the pillar of every government in any nation, depends on the rule of law and seeing the Judiciary making a very strong statement should be a wake-up call to the government.
“Since the President took over, he has ignored our request to have audience with us,” LNBA President added.
