| – Government /IDB project is a big success!!Justice Claudette Singh, along with Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, Chancellor of the Judiciary Carl Singh, Minister within the Ministry ofFinance Bishop Juan Edghill and IDB representative Mark Wenner.With the help of the Inter American Development Bank, Government yesterday completed the first ever Justice Reform Project which was being done under the “Modernization of the Justice Administration System”.Government had embarked on the project some six years ago having realized that the Justice sector was in need of reform. Against that backdrop the government signed a US$25M agreement with the IDB, to undertake several institutional reforms.Coordinator for the Project, Justice Claudette Singh, explained that the project has made considerable progress which has been recorded. She was at the time speaking at a closing ceremony held yesterday morning at the Duke Lodge Hotel.According to Justice Singh,Authentic MLB Jerseys Online, the project had its genesis in the 2006 Justice Sector Reform strategy. The former judge explained that the strategy was devised to address the many challenges which beleaguered the justice system. She said that the project ushered in many reforms that addressed several longstanding challenges in the justice sector.For example, under theproject Guyana’s Law reports were significantly updated. According to Justice Singh, the legal fraternity is well aware that the Law Report for 1976 was printed in 1996, some 20 years later. She said that the last official law revision was done in 1977.There were delays of up to seven years for a case to be completed from the time it was filed, taking into consideration the delays in handing down decisions. The law reports from 1977 to 2007 are now in print form.Justice Singh added that they have also printed an index to these reports (1930-2007) which is available now. In addition to that, Justice Singh noted that the reports are also now digitized.Fast track to present, Justice Singh said that through the project the system is now in a position to inform that the most critical of the concerns have been dealt with. Justice Singh added that the case backlog has been significantly reduced and steps are in train not only to reduce it further, but to eliminate it completely.Justice Singh added that through the project several courts and courtrooms have been refurbished, the Director of Public Prosecutors Chambers were renovated and furnished. According to Singh the Chambers now have 15 offices for prosecutors. Both state and police prosecutors were trained and according to the DPP her success rate in prosecutions moved to 30 per cent in 2010 and almost 50 percent in 2011.Justice Singh said, “Completing the project and achieving the success was no easy task,” but they nevertheless continued.Under the project, the Court of Appeal, the Chief Justice’s Court and the Commercial Courts will be installed with voice recognition systems so that there would be no need for the respective judges to write notes in longhand.Further, Justice Singh expounded on the fact that through the project a Law Revision Unit was established to facilitate the ongoing revision of the laws. At present, the laws of Guyana are updated up to December 31, 2010 which according to Singh is a significant achievement.In hindsight, Justice Singh said that the project was a very complex one with unfamiliar dialogue to institutions that had most probably never thought of reviewing their structures.She said that notwithstanding these constraints at the end of the project they can say with confidence that the justice institutions are in a much more collaborative mode that focuses on problem solving of critical issues with cross cutting implications.Meanwhile, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall said he was very happy with the project and how it has changed the way things are done in the justice sector.He believes with these reforms a heightened sense of integrity will be developed for its work. “The project has laid a strong foundation and we must build on that foundation,Wholesale China Jerseys,” he said.Guyana also came in for high praises from the IDB. There was a resounding call at this morning’s ceremony to mark the close of the project and generate awareness for the changes for it to be treated as a continuous necessitate.According to Nandlall,Jerseys NFL Cheap, training has a keynote in the project both for the beneficiary organizations – judges,Cheap NFL Jerseys, prosecutors, and administrative staff as well as the external stakeholders.According to Nandlall, the Justice Sector, for the first time, now has a monitoring and evaluation framework that is managed by a small M&E Unit in Ministry of Legal Affairs. He said that they have had several user-surveys since this development was put in place and these have allowed policymakers to garner important insights into the perceptions of the end-users of the justice system.He said that while all perceptions do not necessarily reflect the reality of the various situations, they still open avenues where critical self-assessment can throw some light as to the reason for those perceptions, propelling the sector institutions to create more opportunities to engage in dialogue that will clarify misconceptions.Certainly,Wholesale Football Jerseys, the Minister said that it would be a tool that will allow people to have a continuous pulse on the function of the sector as seen by our valuable stakeholders.Nandlall noted that even though the project was a very complex one with multiple new engagements and unfamiliar dialogue in institutions that had most probably never engaged on a deliberate path of reviewing their structures, administrative processes and experimenting with modern management approaches, and ‘talking to each other’ to intentionally seek out collection solutions to cross-cutting problems.Rather,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, individual institutions were preoccupied over the years in dealing with the many complex legal issues of the day. Today, that culture is changing and can only auger for better functioning of the sector as a whole.Minister within the Ministry of Finance, Bishop Juan Edghill, explained that the loan which was signed between Guyana and the IDB was in two fold with a policy based component and investment component.Edghill said that the policy-based component was disbursed in two tranches. The first one was for the amount of US$7M and the second one was in the tune of US$8M.He said that the last tranche was fully disbursed in 2011. Further he explained that the investment component was equivalent to US$10M and then US$232,000 from the Government of Guyana.The Minister said that first component was for the enhancing of institutional capacity. The second component was for the strengthening of linkages among institutions. Thirdly the last component was for improving access to justice. |
