Annual Report of the Judiciary of Trinidad and Tobago 2012-2013 Annual Report 2012-2013 | Page 22

The Judiciary’s unfinished reforms are dependent on the
inescapable fact, as noted by the Honourable Chief Justice
in his address at the opening of the 2012/2013 law term,
that “it is difficult to take responsibility for outcomes when
one does not control the inputs.” The completion of the
reform of the criminal justice system and the Magistracy
are critical endeavours for which the human capital
element is essential to their success.
Without adequate means for making its own decisions
regarding its human and financial resources, there will
always be non-alignment between the mandates of the
Judiciary and the resource and capacity needs of the
organisation. Should these decisions continue to be
external to the Judiciary, the institution’s hopes for
completing the needed reforms will not be within reach
nor sustainable in both the short-term and long-term. In
essence, the Judiciary will not be able to guide its reform
initiatives nor manage its caseload at the expected level of
performance, if the overriding policy decisions for
management of its resources take place external to the
organisation. Today, the organisation is much too diverse
and complex to be working within a governance frame-

20

Reshaping the

Judiciary Identity

work that was introduced during the pre-independence
era, when the pace of litigation was slower and the
demands on the Court’s time were much less.
To mitigate these challenges, the Judiciary, in engaging the
Ministry of Public Administration during the past year,
put forward a wide range of recommendations including:
•creating the conditions to ensure that the Judiciary can
progress with its own reform initiatives in partnership
with the Executive, but with the ability to see and be
assured of a clear path for completion
•developing a special career path for employees of the
Judiciary, and creating a permanent Judiciary Establishment for all categories of employeees
•developing the capability, capacity and providing the
autonomy of the Judiciary for managing its own Human
Resources
•providing a global and independent budget for the
Judiciary with the autonomy for managing its funds

according to its own priorities and the national standards
of auditing, accounting and accountability
•providing for utilisation of modern and relevant Human
Resource Management and Financial Management
Information Systems delinked from the timelines associated with general reforms initiates of the wider Government service and
•adhering to internationally accepted standards, rules,
covenants and declarations for judicial independence and
separation of powers.