Accra,(Greater Accra) 23, Sept. Delegates at the on-going fifth African Regional Ombudsmen conference have identified the lack of adequate financial support as a major constraint in their work. Some of the delegates maintained that this problem had accounted for their inability to ensure the effective administration of justice in their countries. Representatives from 17 African countries and a Pakistani observer team are attending the conference on the theme ”The Importance of Administrative justice in the Democratisation Process in Africa”. Mr W.C. Musonda, an investigations officer from Zambia, said the first and most serious problem associated with the investigations process in his country ”is the budgetary requirement”. ”There has always been insufficient financial support from the central government and the annual budget which the Commission for investigations submits to the central government could be reduced at any given time due to economic constraints,” he said. He noted that although the Commission’s workload has of late increased, financial support has not increased correspondingly. Mr Musonda said the situation has given rise to delays in investigations by the Commission as well as that of other institutions. Mr Musonda said the Zambian Commission sometimes lacked cooperation from state officials and institutions during investigations, adding it also often faces threats of legal action. He said, however, that these (officials and institutions) ”have come to realize the role of the Commission that it is not there for confrontation but to ensure administrative justice”. The Ugandan representative, Mr Justice F.N. Mumba, said as a result of inadequate funding from the government, ”the Inspectorate has had to operate on donor funding”. He, however, stressed that such donor funds are provided for specific projects which are budgeted for ”without which the Inspectorate may not get the needed funding”. There must be a legal framework that would ensure the funding of the office of the Ombudsman from the consolidated fund, Mr Justice Mumba added. The delegates from Burkina Faso, Algeria and Benin stressed the need for authority for the office of the Ombudsman to enforce recommendations made after investigations. Professor Seydou Madani Sy, Ombudsman of Senegal, emphasized the positive recognition his office established in 1991 had received in his country. He said by the end of last year, a total of 5,158 complaints had been made to his office and this, compared with the 7.5 million population of the country, showed ”the expression of the socially very useful purpose the institution has served”. Prof Sy said the Senegalese government in receiving the Ombudsman’s 1996 report, accepted a suggestion to amend the law that established the Office of the Ombudsman. He said the amendment enabled the Ombudsman to ”rule independently” on cases where its observations of the running of public institutions ”puts it in a position to detect the risks of disputes likely to affect social peace”. This, Professor Sy said, is with particular regard to the success of business and the improvement of the institutional and economic environment that guarantees the rights of the entire community of fair and equitable treatment.
The delegates last night visited the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum. They were conducted round by Nii Sai Obodai, head of the educational and tour department of the National Museum.
