The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Lateef Fagbemi, has called for more funding for the ministry to ensure improved performance in 2024.
Fagbemi said this on Monday in Abuja, when he reviewed the 2023 budget performance of the ministry as well as defended the 2024 budget at the Senate Committee on Judiciary.
He said the ministry was allocated N3.3 billion for capital expenditure and N4.6 billion for recurrent expenditure in 2023.
He said that with less than 30 days until the end of the year, the ministry had only gotten releases of N617 million for capital expenditure and N2.734 billion for recurrent expenditure.
This, he said, had greatly affected the performance of the ministry.
He said the ministry was determined to achieve a paradigm shift in 2024, saying that it allocated N5.3 billion for capital expenditure and N8.8 billion for recurrent expenditure in the 2024 budget.
He urged the committee to support the ministry, as it was fundamental to driving the current administration’s roadmap for the justice sector.
He said legal and judicial reforms were some of the vital priority areas under the president’s eight-point agenda.
“To ensure the security and confidence of the judicial officers, coupled with the location of the trial, the Ministry is required to charter aircraft to airlift them.
“The Ministry is also spending considerable resources on the provision or upgrading of infrastructural facilities at the various venues to make them fit for purpose,” he said.
He said the ministry had been promoting the policy of having state counsels and handling more cases on behalf of the government.
‘There are instances where the need to engage senior external solicitors becomes inevitable.
“Thus, greater funding is required to increase the capacity and boost the morale of state counsels through regular payment of duty tour allowances and robe allowances, among others.
“The professional fees of the private solicitors also need to be settled. The ministry is also involved in defending the country in international litigation and arbitration, which are by their nature very expensive to prosecute or defend in terms of payment of administrative fees to tribunals, professional fees to solicitors, and expert fees.
“These cases usually arise after the closure of the budget preparation and passage process, which means the ministry is unable to make specific budgetary requests for funding the cases,” he said.
He said that there was a backlog of obligations that needed to be cleared to sustain the efforts of the ministry in reducing the government’s exposure to judgment debts as well as ensuring that the implementation of government policies and projects was not hindered by litigation.
“The Ministry is also currently defending over 2000 cases, with huge potential liabilities, on behalf of FGN and its MDAs.
“These cases require diligent prosecution and effective defence to avoid embarrassment and enforcement actions,” he said.
Earlier, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Alhaji Mohammed Mongonu, said the meeting aimed to ask the minister to present a review of the 2023 budget in line with the constitutional responsibility that gave the parliament power to oversee MDAs.
This, he said, was designed to ensure that Nigerians got value for money and to ensure transparency and accountability in the utilisation of funds appropriated to the ministry. (NAN)
