By Omar Bah
Impeccable sources have informed The Standard that the salaries and allowances of serving judges have been revised upward.
According to the latest increment, the Chief Justice’s monthly salary has now risen from D189,655 to D290,000 while Supreme Court judges’ salaries have risen from D147,500 to 211,000; the president of the Court of Appeal from D137,750 to D190,000, Court of Appeal judges from D122,875 to D170,000 and High Court judges from D108,975 to D154,000.
The fuel allocation to the Chief Justice, Supreme, Appeal and High Courts and President of the Court of Appeal combined, totals D190,000.
Finance minister explains
When contacted for comments on the issue, Finance Minister Seedy Keita confirmed the increment but was quick to clarify that the increment is within the judiciary’s approved budget.
He said the judiciary had argued that judges were not catered in the last salary review.
“They were not catered for in the salary increment. I think this is why they came up with the decision to increase their salaries. It should be understood that the budget for the judiciary is an isolated budget of its own. It is not the executive who just got up and decided to increase their salary. We don’t have that power,” he said.
Minister Keita said the National Assembly, IEC and the Judiciary deal with their own budgets from approval to execution.
“The only thing is they cannot spend outside the approved envelope,” he said.
Commenting on why the increment doesn’t affect the magistrates’, Minister Keita stated that the magistrates’ were catered for in the last salary review.
He recalled that his ministry once touched the judiciary’s budget but the National Assembly forced them to restore it.
