By Crispina Cummings
Member of Parliament for Constituency 71, Frank Kposowa has described as "wretched" the judicial service delivery in the country, which he says in every way undermines the national aspirations by frustrating the work of structures crucial to the achievement of the Agenda for Prosperity (A4P).
Contributing in the debate on the annual budget, the opposition MP said the budget made a nice reading until it came to paragraph 143 which seeks to pour more money into improving the workings of the judiciary.
The MP said that only poor people went to jail in Sierra Leone and that the rich used their period of trial at the court as a vacation.
He cited several cases taken to the court by the Anti-Corruption Commission but lamented that 60% of the people who got convicted were "the small people and small clerks". As a matter of fact, he went on, the ACC is most hit.
"I think it is time an enquiry was set up to look into the activities of the judiciary if the president’s Agenda for Prosperity should land at its destination" he chided, adding that a "debt-distress economy like ours" could not continue "to waste money on people who have no interest of this country at heart".
Touching on tourism, as the MP is chairman of the parliamentary subcommittee on tourism, he observed that the allocation of Le 2.3 billion to a sector, which is included in Pillar 1 of the A4P, ridicules the seriousness of its classification.
(C) Politico 10/12/13
