Benin report - Institut Africain de la Gouvernance

CHAPTER THREE: DEMOCRACY AND POLITICAL GOVERNANCE__________________________________________________________________________Providing greater autonomy for the JSC from the Executive, seeing thatthe president of the republic and the minister of justice are also thechairman and second vice-chairman respectively of the JSC (government,Parliament, the Constitutional Court, the JSC and judicial workers‟unions).Accelerating the implementation of the PIRSJ, and updating the data onthe various components if necessary (government and Parliament, withassistance from development partners).Setting up an ad hoc inspection, performance evaluation and anticorruptiontask force within the judiciary. This should compriserepresentatives from all sectors of the judicial system selected for theirintegrity and intelligence (JSC, the Supreme Court, government, BarAssociation and corporate groups).Instituting a National Day of the Judiciary to celebrate the institution andmembers of the justice system who have distinguished themselves duringthe year (government, JSC, the Supreme Court with the assistance of allthe other national institutions, and civil society).Assessing the capacities of the High Court and taking the necessarylegislative and institutional measures to ensure the effective functioning ofthis important court (government and Parliament).Objective 5:Guarantee an efficient, capable and responsible publicservicei. Summary of the CSAR236. According to the CSAR, since the public service and administrativemodernisation meeting was held in 1994, numerous measures have been takento reform Benin‟s public service, enhance its performance and make it thespearhead of development. These measures created awareness among publicservants of their responsibilities. It must, however, be admitted that most ofthe weaknesses identified during the National Sovereign Conference still exist.They include ageing public officers; arrogance, indifference and even scorntowards illiterate users of public services; the high cost of services; lack of asense of professionalism among public servants; impunity; not takingadvantage of the knowledge and skills of workers; poor time management;politicisation of the civil service; and the recruitment quotas policy (a clearavenue for discrimination and tribalism).237. The national consultation conducted by the INCI-APRM led to a number ofinterventions to strengthen institutions and to make the public service efficientand effective. The CSAR mentions some of these:101