13 Mar 2022

Minister of Defence, Justice and Security says separation of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) from Attorney General’s Chambers as requested by some legislators remains a challenge due to financial constraints.

Responding to MPs comments after presenting budget estimates for the Attorney General’s (AG’s) Chambers for the 2022/2023 financial year recently, Mr Kagiso Mmusi said making DPP a stand-alone department required more funds which could not be supported by the ministry’s already insufficient budget.

 However, he said the DPP continued to enjoy its independent status despite being under AG’s, adding the former continued to operate independently without any interference from the latter.

 He said Attorney General was also clear that it could not meddle in DPP’s affairs hence the environment within which the DPP operated was independent.

 He added that the DPP existed to prosecute all cases emanating from the law enforcement agencies as well as prosecute appeals from all levels of magistrate and customary courts, Court of Appeal and the High Court.

On the DPP’s takeover of prosecutorial duties from the BPS, Mr Mmusi said a strategy was developed in the 2021/2022 financial year to deal with the takeover exercise but had proved difficult to comprehensively implement without dedicated resources.

 He said efforts to implement the exercise on a business as usual basis had yielded some results but committed resources would assist the DPP to significantly make greater strides in providing quality litigation.

 MPs were of the view that the DPP was already a big department hence needed to be separated from AG’s Chambers to enable the latter to perform its role of advising government on legal matters effectively.
 

They argued that the Attorney General was the principal advisor to government on legal matters hence it was overwhelming for the office to supervise other offices under the AG’s particularly the DPP.  However, Minister Mmusi said such change could also be proposed to the Commission on Constitutional Review.

 On other issues, he said granting of bail upon indictment trials was governed by Section 96 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, where bail was determined by the High Court.

 He said issues of bail had been a serious concern and the ministry was working round the clock to come up with a Bill that would review the conditions for granting bail.

On conditions of service for prosecutors and AG’s chambers staff, the minister indicated that such were the ministry’s priority.

 He also indicated the ministry continued to request for funds to increase the DPP staff and as a specialised department, it needed highly skilled people who would be able to carry out its core functions.
 

Meanwhile, some legislators had suggested separation of powers between the DPP and AG’s as well as security of tenure for DPP director.
 

They had also requested for establishment of more AGC offices across the country as well as look into issues of bail which they argued was a cause for concern.  Parliament, nonetheless, approved the minister’s request of a budget of over P300 million for the AG’s Chambers for the 2022/2023 financial year. BOPA