The Executive Secretary of the National Judicial Council (NJC), Ahmed Saleh, yesterday said uncontrolled inflation was threatening prompt judgement delivery in the country.
Saleh, who said this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, and Legal Matters in Abuja, said the development was affecting the administration of justices across courts.
Saleh stated this before the Senate Committee headed by Senator Bamidele Opeyemi for the 2022 budget defence of the agency.
While giving an overview on the 2021 budget performance, the Executive Secretary lamented that the galloping inflation has hampered the NJC in executing some of its capital projects, hence, they decided to roll them over to 2022.
He said the 2022 budget proposal is pegged at N120 billion to execute projects that have been rolled over.
Explaining that the said the statutory transfer so far in 2021 stood at 70% he expressed optimism that further transfers before the end of the 2021 fiscal year would enable the NJC to achieve more.
“The statutory transfer for the year 2022 will be N120 billion, we are aware that this is possible because of your sustained campaign for the funding of the Judiciary.
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“Am glad to report to this committee that out of N110 billion appropriated to us in 2021, we can implement 70 percent of our budget”
He added, “Permit me at this point to make some observations regarding the prevailing economic situation in the country. As of 2020 December, the exchange rate of Naira was N380 to $1 and the rate was N480 to $1 at the parallel market.
