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By SHEILA LASIBORI
A TOTAL of 43 practising lawyers have applied to the Magisterial
Services to become magistrates and the applicants are undergoing
screening.
And the selection of at least 10 successful applicants from the 43 who
have applied is strictly based on merit.
Chief Magistrate John Numapo told reporters during a press conference on
Tuesday that by the time the new magistrates were appointed, they would
join the serving 101 magistrates throughout the country to undergo
professional development training programme.
The programme is expected to cost the PNGMS at about K1.6 million, which
will be mostly funded by AusAID through the Law and Justice Sector
Programme (LJSP) with the remaining cost to be met by PNGMS.
The programme to be conducted by the New South Wales Judicial Commission
(NSWJC) based in Sydney, Australia, will start this November and will
continue for a three-year period.
Last week, Mr Numapo travelled to Sydney where he signed a memorandum of
understand (MoU) with NSWJC chief executive officer Ernie Schmatt.
“This is the beginning of a new era in judicial training for our
magistrates and I am personally pleased with the training assistance the
NSWJC will provide to the PNG magistracy under this MoU.
“This is a start of a more structured and sustainable judicial training
and professional development programmes for our magistrates,” he said,
adding previously the PNGMS had done things on ad hoc basis.
“Without proper planning and knowing what the tangible outcomes would be
and how the Magisterial Service would benefit out of this. This will now
change,” Mr Numapo said.
Also present during the signing ceremony was the director for judicial
education Ruth Windeler in Sydney .
 
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