In the local courts, Opposition Leader John Briceño and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Julius Espat have made an application seeking that the Chief Justice’s ruling against Prime Minister and his government be formalized. The former chief justice Kenneth Benjamin retired before providing a written judgment which he handed down on January thirty-first, 2020. Benjamin made an oral judgment in the Supreme Court ruling that the Prime Minister who is the Minister of Finance spent one point five billion dollars from the public purse unconstitutionally. The former C.J. ruled that the consequence will be postponed until after six months of the ruling, allowing the Barrow administration to amend the Constitution. But last week, Barrow claimed that the C.J.’s oral judgment is a non-decision since Benjamin is now functus and did not perfect the order. That statement has come under fire with attorneys pointing out that oral judgments are binding. The P.U.P. says that the Prime Minister is gravely mistaken and has now applied to the court to have the six months grace period lifted and the order normalized so that the problem can be addressed. Julius Espat explains.
On the Phone: Julius Espat, Chairman, P.A.C.
“The application is just to formalize the oral judgment that the Chief Justice has done just to make clarity and we want the courts to be able to follow through on the judgment that the Chief Justice had previously done before he retired. So we are just doing our due diligent and we are asking the court to act on it. Remember the Chief Justice gave the Prime Minister six months to fix whatsoever problem that was indicated. Six months is about to be up and nothing has been done. That is one. Two, the Prime Minister has totally dismissed the oral judgment given by the judge so now we are asking the court to act on that oral judgment to make sure that what decisions were made were follow. There was a period that the Chief Justice had given which is six months for the Prime Minister to fix the problem that were listed in the oral judgment. So that is what we are asking. Fix that so that the penalties can go forward so that we can fix the problem.”