Special Prosecutor Bill, a Narrow Conception – Justice Emile Short

Justice Francis Emile Short

Former Supreme Court judge Justice Emile Short has stated that the Special Prosecutor Bill is a narrow conception of fighting fight corruption at both public and private sector.

Parliament last Tuesday passed the Special Prosecutor Bill into law amidst several controversy and opposition by the minority. 

Chief among them was the clause which gives the Special Prosecutor immunity from prosecution. The Minority in Parliament were unhappy about this clause stating that it will violate the constitution.    

This, Justice Emile Short stated that it is reactive in nature as it fails to deal with the fundamentals of fighting against corruption.

“The present government campaigned on the platform of fighting corruption and has centred its strategy on the establishment of Special Prosecutor. It might help but I think it is a narrow conception. [This is] because the fight against corruption involves so many components". 

“When you talk about prosecuting people who are implicated in corruption, you are dealing with addressing the problem after it has happened".

"But there are so many people who are engaging in corruption but they are not caught. And so you need to look at the opportunities, loopholes that facilitate corruption and pluck all of them so that corruption does not occur”, Justice Short noted.

Thoughts on state institutions mandated to fight corruption

Justice Emile short who was one time the Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) added that state institutions mandated with the power and authority to fight corruption with or without a complaint are ineffective with their constitutional mandate.

"I don’t think CHRAJ is what it used to be when it was established”, he said.

This, he said is due to past occurrences notably the “impeachment of the last commissioner” which “dented” the image of the commission. Justice Emile Short added that CHRAJ has the power and mandate to investigate corruption even without a complaint - media allegations for example; it hardly does that presently.

The former Supreme Court Judge added that CHRAJ has not demonstrated effectiveness in carrying out that aspect of its mandate which is investigating not only complaints, but allegations of corruption. 

“The institution at the moment is weak. There has been a lot of brain drain, lots of people have left for greener pastures. The institution is not functioning the way it ought to”, he stated.   

EOCO

With regards to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), Justice Emile Short stated that it was better EOCO becomes independent in order to fight against corruption more effective. 

“We hear about the cases it [EOCO] is doing but we rarely don’t know how it functions. It may be doing very well in the background, we don’t get to know very much about the outcome of a lot of the investigations it carries out and it’s still under the authority of the Attorney General. 

I have always suggested that it should be an independent institution” he said.

He commended the media for being on top of the issues such as ensuring a free and fair elections and the important role it has played after elections by making sure that results are announced to the general public as quickly as possible. 

However, the former Judge   urged the media to focus lots more on issues in educating the general public on issues of corruption.

“I don’t think the media has done enough to educate the public on the national anti-corruption plan and what it takes to really wage a successful war against corruption". 

"I think there has been too much emphasis on political issues and I think I would like to see the media devoting more attention to other non-political issues like corruption and women and gender issues”, he said.

He narrated that these institutions established to fight against corruption are not working effectively because they are not well resourced in terms of human capacity and financial resource and that these are the problems facing the fight against corruption.

Credit: TV3