MP calls for judicial ombudsman

ESA’ALA MP Jimmy Maladina says the Government needs to push to have a judicial ombudsman to address complaints against the judiciary and to fast track the court process.
Maladina explained Parliament that he wanted the Government to have in place a system that can monitor and report back any delay in the court decision making process.
He said that a lot of decisions had been delayed in both civil and criminal matters, but the process could be faster and people should not be kept waiting for a long time.
Maladina recognised the efforts of the attorney-general to review the judicial services commission that would deal with disciplinary measures for the judicial staff.
He said it should not be left to the judiciary to police itself where court cases were prolonged or delayed unnecessarily.
He said once it was set up, the public would have all the rights to report to the judicial ombudsman commission what were dealt with in the court.
He said that the ordinary people could report directly to the judicial ombudsman if they had any queries for delay of any matter before the court.
He commended the Government for allocating a large sum of money for the work of the judiciary system in the country and urged the attorney-general to add his proposal in his review for the next Parliament.