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Country reports on judicial corruption
Another element of the justice system presenting symptoms of corruption is the police. A comprehensive administrative review carried out in 2005 found widespread reports of misuse of funds and a disciplinary mechanism in almost complete collapse (see Global Corruption Report 2006). The report was endorsed by the then minister for internal security (now Minister for Justice), who one year on believes that there has been slow progress. Civil society groups are more critical and say that even the easiest safeguards, such as wearing identification tags at all times, have not yet been implemented. Lawyers, too, participate in judicial corruption, but the paucity of data makes it difficult to assess the scale of the problem. The complaints system administered by the Law Society barely functions. There are long delays in dealing with complaints, and lawyers who are the subject of serious complaints are able to practise for years before the case is resolved.
Court user forums reduce case backlog The ombudsman commission is an important feature of the judicial system and has a mandate to investigate infractions of the PNG leadership code. Though praised by the anti-corruption movement, it came under intense criticism in 2006 because of the increasing number of referrals of MPs and ministers to the leadership tribunal. A parliamentary select committee was formed in 2005 to review the powers and functions of the ombudsman commission, and its final report is due in late 2006. In its supplementary budget in mid-2006, the government approved an extra K2.8 million (US $980,000) for the leadership tribunal’s extra workload. Finally, under a suite of proceeds-of-crime bills passed in 2005 – which go some way towards enacting the provisions of the UN Convention Against Corruption – a finance intelligence unit has been set up within the PNG fraud squad. It
is expected to become the focus of the state’s fight against white-collar crime. If the unit is to make inroads into the deep-seated corruption in the public sector, however, it will attract opposition of the highest order. Several initiatives have been introduced that look at the justice system as a whole and, while not focused primarily on corruption, they could engender an environment in which judicial corruption is more difficult to effect. A Criminal Justice System Task Force, chaired by Justice Mogish and involving agency heads, is working to reform the criminal case track from arrest through to trial. Areas identified as requiring reform include the committal system, which causes a lot of delay. Court user forums chaired by national court judges are now active in seven of the country’s 20 provinces, and are aimed at bringing the courts and key stakeholders together to identify simple changes to improve efficiency. There has been a 67 per cent reduction in the case backlog from 2003 and 2004 in Waigani national court in Port Moresby as a direct result of efficiencies identified through court user forums supported by the AusAID Law and Justice Sector Programme. It is clear that PNG’s legal system performs at a sub-optimal level. Urgent measures are needed to ensure that a non-corrupt and properly functioning legal system is maintained. Some argue that the PNG legal system suffers because of flaws in its design; others that further work will offer only an incomplete solution to what is a general dysfunction. What the legal system needs most desperately, however, is political will. When ministers, MPs, public servants, lawyers, police and the public are united in their will to see a functioning legal system put before the vested interests of the few, reform and change may become possible. TI Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby