Chief Justice Bryan Sykes has responded to claims that the maintenance of the Jamaican courts declined since the establishment of the Court Administration Division (CAD).

He argued that this perception is misleading, citing reports like that of Professor Barry Chevannes and the Vision 2030 document, which indicate that the courts were already facing issues of inadequacy and dilapidation prior to the CAD’s formation.

“The impression has been created that the courts were well-maintained institutions and have gone into decline since the CAD came into existence and had responsibility for the maintenance of the courts. That is simply inaccurate, but don’t take my word for it, look a Professor Chevannes report; look at the vision 2030 document. These are not the words of the judiciary; these are the words of the executives describing the courts as inadequate, old, and dilapidated,” Sykes said at a press conference on Monday, October 14.

He pointed out that although the CAD was created by statute in 2016, it wasn’t until 2019 that the necessary posts were filled, leaving the division under-resourced.

“Even though the statute was passed in 2016 establishing the Court Administration Division, the necessary work to create the posts and to have them transferred into the CAD was not done in 2016, it was not done in 2017, it was not done until 2019. In other words, for two and a half years after Parliament passed the legislation creating the CAD, the necessary posts were not created until 2019, and the only post that was activated was that of director of CAD, so that essentially means you have a general without an army,” he said.

The chief justice said while this does not absolve the CAD and the judiciary from its responsibility, he noted that perspective is important in the matter.

“The judiciary accepts that it has a responsibility to maintain the court buildings but in this there must be an acceptance by the Ministry of Justice that some maintenance involves such significant expenditure that it is really capital expenditure and not maintenance as in replacing fixtures, painting a wall or repairing a leaking pipe,” he said.

Sykes underscored that court buildings across Jamaica are in need of significant infrastructure repairs which requires significant capital expenditure. He noted that capital expenditure is still the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice and not the CAD.