By Mohamed T. Massaquoi
Two Justices of Peace (JPs) in Pujehun and Bo districts in Sierra Leone have told Politico that they haven’t received their backlog of salaries for up to 27 months.
The two JPs are part of seven JPs in the Southern region of the country, of whom four are already dead, who have not received their pay within the period. They blamed the delay on the judiciary.
The delay in paying their monthly salaries started in 2017. Each JP was supposed to receive Le 250,000 as standard payment per month, following accumulation of the number of sittings they presided over during the course of the month.
“This payment is long overdue, and we are now calling on the Judicial System to pay us because they really know that we worked and as such we should be paid,” James Momodu Dao Samba, one of the aggrieved elderly citizens, told Politico.
According to Mr Samba’s calculations, each one of them will get about Le6, 750, 000.
Samba, 80, was attached to the Pujehun District Magistrate Court.
JPs are officers of the court. As part of their many functions they act in local courts to settle disputes and preside over oaths. JPs are mostly people with distinguished records in service within their communities.
Sierra Leone’s justice system is notoriously slow due to the shortage of magistrates and judges in comparison to the cases in court. JPs have therefore been used over the years to cushion the effect of the shortfall in personnel within the system.
They were trained by United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as paralegal assistance to the judiciary. UNDP started their payment based on the number of cases presided over. This mode of payment had since been abandoned.
This set of aggrieved JPs told Politico that they made a joint representation to the former Chief Justice, Abdulai Cham about the failure of the payment of their claims and that promises were made that they were going to be paid which did not materialize.
Samba said he and his colleagues further went and complained the same matter to the Ombudsman, but that they were told they will look into the matter.
Two years on, their case is still the same.
“We have not been paid and already four of my compatriots have died. They have all died without getting their claims paid. It is a very pathetic situation because those people were working daily to improve the Justice System and now if they have died and they have not been paid then people will frown at the Justice System in the country. If people work and they are not paid until they die it is not a good thing,” Samba lamented.
JPs work directly for the judiciary of Sierra Leone. But the judiciary told Politico that they are not responsible for paying them.
“The JPs support the work and mandate of the Judiciary to ensure that we address expeditious and fair trials all over Sierra Leone. But they are appointed by the President and their salary facilitation should be and must be done by the Ministry of Justice through the Ministry of Finance,” Moses Lamin Kamara, the Public Relations Officer of the Judiciary of Sierra Leone, said.
Politico contacted the Ministry of Justice, where an official who identified himself as the Senior Assistance Secretary in the Ministry and worked in the office of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, named Rodney, rudely dismissed our reporter.
Politico have not had any response from the ministry since then.
As the delay continues, Alfred Allieu 75, another former JP in Bo, told Politico that he cannot even afford to pay his rent or feed his family. Allieu served as JP from 1989 to 2016.
“I am now suffering and in fact for me to get money to pay my rent and feed my family is a very difficult task, especially when I do not have children to take up my responsibility,” Allieu said.
© 2019 Politico Online
