06 Mar 2016

The Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Mr Shaw Kgathi says the Attorney General’s Chambers continues to face challenges of staff shortages in critical areas of litigation and drafting.

Presenting the AG’s Chambers budget proposals for the 2016/17 financial year on Thursday, Mr Kgathi said experienced staff with special skills in conducting complex litigation and drafting were scarce in the open market.

He also noted that the government was unable to compete with the private sector in retaining experienced officers in such areas due to financial constraints.

“However, the department continues to capacitate its employees through training in specialised areas of litigation and other managerial courses,” he said.

He added that in many cases, at the end of training the officers were offered lucrative positions within the economy by parastatals and other government-owned companies that offer more attractive remuneration and other benefits the AG’s Chambers cannot offer.

“I am hopeful that the restructuring exercise that we are undertaking shall provide concrete proposals on what we can do to close gaps in this regard,” he said. 

Furthermore, he said the AG’s Chambers continued to lose experienced prosecutors and middle managers to the private sector.

That, he said, significantly affected set targets and turnaround times as well as quality of work, effectiveness and supervision, particularly in prosecution.

“Notwithstanding, there are hardworking and dedicated officers whose dedication to work has led to them being rewarded accordingly in terms of promotions and internal awards,” he said.

The minister said efforts to improve conditions of service for lawyers in the chambers remained his long-term commitment.

He added that they continued to engage relevant government departments with a view to find a way to improve conditions of service so to be able to recruit and retain experienced lawyers.

The minister also said there was a need to increase the training budget to bring prosecutors up to speed with highly developed and technical nature of transnational crimes they had to prosecute.

“With the promulgation of the counter terrorism, anti-human trafficking and civil forfeiture laws in proceeds and instruments of Crime Act, we need intensive training of our prosecutors in these areas,” he said.

The minister also said the DPP was still grappling with the take-over of all prosecutions from investigative authorities and to decentralise its functions.

“Due to the 2008 economic downturn, the processes of taking over prosecutions from additional police stations and opening of new offices has been suspended,” he said.

He said the opening of new offices in Tsabong and Selebi-Phikwe would help ease pressure on the Francistown and Gaborone officers, who had been travelling long distances to service such areas.

That, he added, necessitated the creation of new positions to operationalise the stations and “bring justice nearer to the public.” 

Notwithstanding, he said the AG’s Chambers had been allocated 21 posts at middle level last year to capacitate the DPP. 

“In the long-term, the positive outcome would be reduction of the ration cases per prosecutor,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the minister requested over P5 million and over P198 million for the AG’s Chambers’ development and recurrent budgets respectively. Ends