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Payments settled without approval
By SHEILA LASIBORI
THE Finance Department has been settling
payments to claimants without the knowledge of the Solicitor-General’s
office, acting Solicitor-General David Lambu said.
This action is in breach of the Claims By and Against The State Act
(1996), and has resulted in the office keeping files of claims against
the State, dating back several years.
“In a number of cases, the Department of Finance has released the
cheques straight, when the cheques request should go straight to the
Solicitor-General’s office,” Mr Lambu told the inquiry chaired by Judge
(retired) Maurice Sheehan.
“Normally it (payments) is done on the recommendations of the
Solicitor-General,” he said.
Mr Lambu was concerned that because the Finance Department, sometimes,
settled claimants without his office knowing, the office continued to
keep files that had been settled through court judgments, deeds of
release or through litigation.
“We find out that cheques have been released to claimants and their
lawyers without our knowledge…some files (that) should have been closed
but are kept (by Sol-Gen),” he said.
He said the offices of the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General had
been relying on ‘the way things had always been done’ rather than
sticking by the laws.
In dealing with documents relating to monetary claims against the State,
the two offices in most cases have worked outside the Attorney-General’s
Act 1989, the Public Finance (Management) Act 1995 and Claims By and
Against the State Act 1996.
While responding to Mr Sheehan’s question of whether the
Attorney-General had the power to request the Finance Department to make
payments upon receipt of the claim, Mr Lambu said: “It has been the
practice that the Attorney-General forwards the request with a covering
letter.
“He only signs the Certificate of Judgment. Although it is not provided
for in law, we have been doing that,” he added.
Another document which has become part of the practice of getting claims
paid is the Deed of Release.
Mr Lambu said the use of Deed of Release was a practice and not provided
in the Claims By and Against the State Act (1996) but was used to settle
liabilities.
 
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