judicial

Report blasts low court budget

la prensa

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While Supreme Court Justice Harley Mitchell is expected to “reconsider” the 40 percent cut to the judicial branch’s projected budget, the 2008 State of the Region report criticized the country's judicial spending for being “slightly less than 0.3 percent” of the gross domestic product.

Concerning the request for a “realignment” of the 2009 budget, Mitchell said yesterday in Chiriquí that he had already handed over the formal proposal to the Budget Commission of the National Assembly, which would in turn be reviewed by the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas (MEF). He added that a response to the proposal should be received by November 15.

“The MEF is the one who cuts or assigns budgets and, as for the members of the Assembly, we will give the judicial branch our full support,” commented National Assembly Chairman Raúl Rodríguez.

According to the 2008 State of the Region report, which evaluates social, economic and political developments in Central America, there were no changes in the constitutions of any member country to cover the cost of the judicial system between 2002 and 2007.

For that reason, the report assigned Panama the worst ranking with respect to judicial spending. El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras, on the other hand, allocated nearly one percent of their countries’ respective gross domestic product.

Evelyn Villarreal, coordinator of the research report which was submitted last September, said that “the financial base of the judicial powers of the country is precarious, making improving infrastructure and services difficult.”