My family currently has a matter awaiting judgement by the Tax Appeal Board.Therefore it is with great interest I read the recent utterances by the chairman of the Tax Appeal Board, Justice Anthony Gafoor, at the opening of the new court session. Whilst he tries to piggy back on the Chief Justice's call for an independent budget, he did not give any statistics about the number of judgements he and his judges on the tax appeal board delivered in the previous law term.
I applaud the detailed report given by the Chief Justice on the performance of his judges. From filing a claim to disposition, civil cases now take one to two years at maximum. The CJ also indicated that there were only two outstanding judgements that were over six months old. These are hard statistics of which we can be proud. Such commendable accountability and efficiency of public institutions is something all senior public officials should aspire to.
In contrast, the Chairman of the Tax Appeal Board, who is a servant of the State and by extension its people, hasn't bothered to give such information, and I am left to wonder why.
The call for his own law library and the attempt to make this an excuse for the failure to deliver judgements is ridiculous and quite insulting to us as common citizens. I know for a fact that legal libraries are available online at the touch of a finger. Furthermore, the Hall of Justice (which has a fantastic and one of the most well-stocked law libraries in the Caribbean) is literally a five-minute walk away.
We citizens are utterly frustrated with the inefficiencies in certain institutions. I suggest to Justice Gafoor to put his house in order before making demands of the Government.We are a small country and must guard against the Caribbean tendency for certain personalities who hold high public office wanting to become emperors in their own empire.
J De Coteau
Via e-mail