The third branch of government, the Judiciary, 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.
On Friday, July 19, 2024, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and head of the Judiciary, Her Honor Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh, expressed further disappointment and disapproval of the treatment meted out to the Judiciary branch of government by the other two branches in regards to the budget appropriation for the year under review.
Chief Justice Yuoh recalled that, upon the passage of the 2024 fiscal budget, in which the Judiciary was appropriated an amount of US$17 million and a one-off contingency amount of US$3 million, constituting a meager 2.8% of the National Budget, 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. She stated that 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 meeting, which was attended by the President and members of his cabinet, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and members of the House’s leadership, the Pro-Tempore of the Senate and members of the Senate’s leadership and the full bench of the Supreme Court, along with the leadership of the National Association of Trial Judges of Liberia, I, as Chief Justice, speaking on behalf of the Judiciary, reiterated the position of the Supreme Court regarding the budgetary appropriations made for this branch in the 2024 National Budget. The position of the Supreme Court is premised on Section 21.3 of the New Judiciary Law (as amended 2006), titled, The Financial Autonomy Act,” Chief Justice Yuoh observed.
In the meeting, she told President Boakai and the gathering that, 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 to the Legislature for the Judiciary.
According to her, 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.
Sadly, she said, 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.
The Chief Justice disclosed that, on July 5, 2024 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 she described as 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 three branches of government work in coordination, collaboration and mutual respect to uphold the rule of law is since,” she doubted.
“As we speak today, the Public Procurement and Concession Commission has refused to approve the procurement plan of the Judiciary, which was drawn up based on our 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 Chief Justice noted.
She underscored that it evidently appears like both the Legislative and Executive branches of government do not regard the Judiciary as a co-equal branch of the same government with attending needs and responsibilities, as they have remained unresponsive to the concerns raised regarding the appropriation of a meager 2.8% of the National Budget to the Judiciary (the second largest and decentralized branch of government). “This the Judiciary views as unfair, unjust, and an attempt by the other two branches of government to further render the Liberian Judiciary ineffective and inefficient,” the Chief Justice maintained.
“We, as the Supreme Court of Liberia, and Head of the Judiciary Branch of government, are fully cognizant of our power of Judicial Review and the Constitutional power to strike down any law which runs contrary to the Constitution or any other existing statute, such as the Budget Law. We have stayed our actions in the spirit of cooperation and coordination amongst the three branches of government. Unfortunately, we might be constrained to take action to compel compliance to include, but not limited to, Article 2 of the Constitution of Liberia (1986).
“It is our hope that this situation be addressed immediately by the President of Liberia, as Head of Government, and the leadership of the Legislature to avoid a Constitutional crisis, as this bench will not accept such treatment of indifference and imposition from our co-equals of the government,” Chief Justice Yuoh, on behalf of the Judiciary, warned.