Legal Aid Bureau strained

Strained with high demand for legal services, the Legal Aid Bureau has opened offices in 13 districts. The aim is to have a lawyer and an office in all districts to facilitate easy access to justice. While the bureau is desirous to have a decentralised system of case management, it is facing serious logistical challenges; there is no office space of their own at district level neither do they have transport. How easy will it be to attract and sustain lawyers work in these districts without resources? Counsel Masauko Chamkakala is the director for the bureau and shares some insights to Suzgo Chitete.

In the week you released a statement announcing that you have now established offices in eight districts. How does this help you serve the people better?

It is true that we have now opened eight more district offices in Nsanje, Mwanza, Machinga, Dedza, Salima, Kasungu, Chitipa and Mzimba. This is over and above the five district offices we opened last year in Mulanje, Mangochi, Nkhota Kota, Mchinji and Karonga. It must also be noted that the Bureau has four regional offices which are operational in Blantyre, Zomba, Lilongwe, and Mzuzu. This brings a total of 17 offices across the country.   This will enable us to reach out to the many people who have not been able to access us because of various challenges including transportation and other related challenges. On our part, it reduces operational costs of going to the rural areas to provide the service on a daily basis.

The judiciary is currently deploying professional magistrates in districts. Do you plan to have lawyers deployed in all districts as is the case in Karonga?

We have started with Karonga district. The plan is to roll out to all the districts. This move will ensure comprehensive legal aid services are available at the district. Currently, all matters registered at the district requiring lawyers have to be referred to respective regional offices which have lawyers. This not only delays the justice delivery, but is also a serious operational burden to the Bureau.

If you are to deploy lawyers in all districts it means you need 28 lawyers more. Do you have the financial base to sustain these lawyers more so deploying them to districts?

The Bureau is a public institution. Its operations are supported by the government. What this means is that the recruitment of these lawyers is only dependent on the government nodding to the various procedural requirements and availing the necessary resources. As you have noted, the Bureau is not the first public institution to have professional lawyers at the district. The same government is supporting the judiciary do this, I do not see any plausible reason why it cannot do the same with the Bureau. We are all in the public justice delivery sector.

Having established offices in districts, what is your experience so far?

The Bureau has encountered and still encounters numerous challenges in opening and operating district legal offices. The first challenges relates to office space. The Bureau depends on respective District commissioners’ offices to house its offices. In some districts there is no office space whilst in others there is lukewarm reception to the idea by the District officials. Where the problems have been serious, the Bureau has moved on to other districts so as to stay on course with its district office opening schedule.

Quite interesting that some districts would not want to support your effort. But is the central government willing to support your initiative to deploy lawyers in districts?

The other challenge relates to the number of officers the government allows the Bureau to have at the district. Aside from not allowing the Bureau to have lawyers at the district, the current staff complement of two officers per district is grossly inadequate to have smooth operations of the office. The Bureau is still negotiating with the Department of Human Resource Management and Development {DHRMD} to rectify the problem. Again, transportation challenges are hampering the smooth delivery of services. In fact the eight district offices we have opened this week do not have any mode of transportation. We are still negotiating with government to provide resources for us to sort out this.

How is the Bureau’s workload in relation to resources? How many cases are you currently handling?

The expansion of the Bureau’s coverage has resulted in a surge in terms of requests for legal aid. As of now, the Bureau is handling close to 15,000 cases across the country. This has put a strain on both our finances and human resource. Currently, the Bureau has a staff compliment of 149, of which 25 are Legal Aid Advocates (lawyers), 34 Assistant Legal Aid Officers and 14 legal interns. These officers are not adequate to provide the best legal aid service as they have too much on their plate.

It appears like you are strained. Have you engaged government?

The Bureau is always negotiating with government for more hands. We have also started a consultative process to allow the Assistant Legal Aid Officers to have limited right of audience in courts as it is with the judiciary (lay magistrates) and police prosecutors. As we speak Parliament is organizing a stakeholder round-table discussion so that our Assistant Legal Aid Officers are able to provide defence in minor cases which are being prosecuted by police prosecutors and presided over by lay-magistrates.