Sir Gibbs calls for judges’ report to be tabled

By BARBARA DERUAGE
CHIEF Justice Sir Gibbs Salika has made a call through the governor-general to have the 2018 judges’ annual report tabled in Parliament in its next sitting.
Sir Gibbs said he had requested in a letter which he presented to Sir Bob Dadae along with the 2018 judges’ annual report to have the report conveyed to the Speaker of Parliament for it to be presented in Parliament.
“To have the reports tabled on the floor of parliament will serve the purpose of accountability as it is a formal way of letting the people of Papua New Guinea know what their courts are doing and how public money appropriated to the courts by the government have been spent,” Sir Gibbs said.
“This is one form of accounting mechanism or accountability of the judges to our people through parliament and this is part of the process as required by law under S.187 of the Constitution.”
Sir Gibbs expressed concern that previous reports in recent times by former Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia were presented to the head of State and given to the Speaker but were not tabled and debated by parliament.
“Right now it’s the property of the head of State and once he conveys it to parliament, it becomes the property of parliament and once it is debated and passed then the reports are disseminated to the public and becomes a public document so people will have access to it, he said.
“The judges in the National and Supreme Courts have a role mandated by the Constitution to report, to be given the commission to be judges and to use whatever resources Papua New Guineans give to us through each year’s appropriation and then we use that money to effect the roles, functions and responsibilities of the judiciary.
“That is effectively what we have done to report back to the people as is the required process.”