To expand access to justice countrywide, the Government has earmarked $6.2 billion to the justice sector this year and according to Senior Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, plans include the preparation of law reports of Guyana and operationalizing of the Constitutional Reform Commission.
In his budget presentation on Monday, Singh told the House that $1.5 billion has been allocated to improve the efficiency of the court system.
To this end, Singh said SMART courts are among the new projects intended to accelerate the provision of justice.
This year too, he said the E-Litigation Programme for the Court of Appeal and the High Court as well as a Case Management System for the Magistrate’s Courts are intended to go live.
Additionally, he said that Information and Communications Technology is being deployed to improve the efficiency of the court system and an additional eight courts across the country are expected to be completed in 2023.
“Investments are being made to strengthen technical capacity to improve the efficiency of the system. In particular, 34 persons successfully completed the Prosecutorial Programme at the Univer-sity of Guyana increasing the number of prosecutors assigned to various courts countrywide, with the aim of reducing the need for pre-trial detention,” Singh told the House.
“Further, in November 2022, the Restorative Justice Act was passed, paving the way for the use of alternative sentencing for specific categories of offences, along with the approval of an amendment to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, allowing the removal of custodial sentences for persons in possession of 30 grammes or less of cannabis. These measures would all contribute to reducing the burden on the justice system,” he added.
According to Singh, another $600 million has been assigned to provide finance for another of the initiatives which are targeted to advance the constitutional and law reform processes.
“These include: the operationalising of the Constitutional Reform Commission; the work of the Law Reform Commission; the completion of the Revised Laws of Guyana; and, the preparation of the Law Reports of Guyana,” he said.
To this end, Singh announced that the new Laws of Guyana volumes are expected to be available by June of this year.
Also, in the interest of expanding the capacity of the justice sector, Singh told the National Assembly that work will be advanced to improve the ease of access to legal education.
“Having received the green light from the Council of Legal Education (CLE), a feasibility study will be prepared in 2023, on the establishment of a regional law school in Guyana, within the framework of the CLE,” he said.
This, he said, will cater for local, regional and extra-regional students given the growing need for legal education in Guyana and the Caribbean.
