Editorial: The Co-Equality Of The Legislature, Executive And Judiciary: The Situation Of The FY2024 National Budget

AT THE BEGINNING of the budget process, the Judiciary submitted a budget estimate of US$31 million to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning for inclusion in the National Budget; however, contrary to the Act and without any legal authority and/or reference to the Supreme Court, the Minister of Finance disregarded the budget estimates submitted by the Judiciary and, instead, submitted a different budget estimate of US$17 million and a one-off contingency amount of US$3 million, constituting a meager 2.8% of the National Budget to the Legislature for the Judiciary.

CONSEQUENTLY, THE PUBLIC Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC) has refused to approve the procurement plan of the Judiciary, which was drawn up based on its original estimates submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, thereby 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 appropriation provides no opportunity to restore the judges’ salaries, which is an issue pending before this court.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF co-equality between the three branches of government has therefore come into focus. On Friday, July 19, 2024, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and head of the Judiciary, Her Honor Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh, expressed disappointment and disapproval of the treatment meted out to the Judiciary branch of government by the other two branches in regard to the budget appropriation for the year under review, and has vowed to invoke Article 2 of the 1986 Constitution and other laws to compel the Legislature and the Executive to comply with augmenting its budgetary allocation for the fiscal year 2024.

THE JUDICIARY, THROUGH the Supreme Court, rejected the budget and viewed the appropriation 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 His Excellency President Joseph N. Boakai, as Head of government, predicated upon which the President convened a meeting among the three branches of the government on Sunday, June 23, 2024 to address the issue.

AT THE END of the meeting, the President mandated that an upward review of the Judiciary’s budget be done in accordance with the referenced law, and that this was agreed upon by the Legislature, for which the Speaker of the House of Representatives committed to have the Ways, Means, Finance and Budget Committees of both Houses meet with the technical team of the Judiciary to recast the Judiciary’s budget within two weeks as of the date of the meeting. It has been far over five weeks since that meeting and no one from either the Ministry of Finance or the relevant committees of the Legislature has followed up with the Judiciary, as was agreed upon by all those present at that meeting.