By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterMINISTER OF Justice and Attorney-General Senator A.J. Nicholson yesterday commended the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for its assistance in providing a well-needed standby generator for the Supreme Court building, downtown Kingston.
The standby generator which costs $10.3 million was handed over to Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe by Miss Karen Turner, mission director of the USAID.
Over the years, judges, lawyers, jurors, litigants and the police had complained bitterly when there was a power cut that the absence of a standby generator was hampering the smooth running of the administration of justice. The Court of Appeal building opposite the Supreme Court is still without a standby generator.
Miss Turner, in addressing the gathering at the handing over ceremony, in Justice Square, downtown Kingston, said that the USAID was especially pleased to have assisted the Ministry of Justice and the Supreme Court to acquire the much needed equipment. She said Jamaica was fortunate to enjoy very strong democratic and judicial traditions.
CHALLENGES
"Yet, numerous challenges to the court system in recent times, including increasing demands on often over-stretched resources, outdated technology, and infrastructural inadequacies, threaten this strong tradition," she added.
Minister Nicholson said he was proud that over the past few years, the administration of justice of which he was a part, was more aware that the idea of justice and development walked hand in hand.
He said it was always felt that the State or the Government must find funds to ensure the whole running of the justice system but this was no longer the case. "I am not coy or shy in accepting gifts for the justice system," as long as they are from upright and decent quarters," Nicholosn said.
He noted that all over the globe there was an indelible link between justice and development and it was that kind of vision that the USAID had not only in Jamaica but internationally.
