Public Expenditure Review of Justice Sector in Niger

The project aims to conduct a public expenditure review in order to contribute to the improvement of budget management in the justice sector in Niger, to inform the government and other stakeholders about the nature of public spending and public sector management in this particular area. Moreover, it seeks to contribute to the enhancement of the efficiency of the allocation and management of the resources to the justice sector and to promote economic and social development.

PMCG in a consortium led by Aide à la Décision Économique (ADE), under the project financed by EU Delegation to Niger, analyzes recent reforms introduced in the justice sector, legal and institutional frameworks, and budget execution processes.

More specifically, the project team covers the following issues:

• Analyze budget allocations and expenditures compared with the main priorities (links between objectives, organizational functions, products and resources available);
• Assess justice sector budget share;
• Conduct an analysis of the public expenditure planning and management system of the Ministry and relevant institutions;
• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the budget process at the sector level: planning, execution, internal control, reporting and results;
• Assess public expenditure on justice services from all sources (domestic and external) and all categories, and analyze intra-sectorial allocations within the relevant departments.

Based on the findings, the project team will establish an intersectoral institutional mechanism for implementation and follow-up of the recommendations of the expenditure review on the sector, and recommend ways of promoting dialogue between the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance to ensure better programming and management of public sector spending.

Background information:

The justice sector in Niger plays a prominent role in mobilizing official development assistance to finance development programs and projects. Thus, in the framework of the 11th EDF (European Development Fund), the program was developed and adopted to address the promotion of good governance, security and peacebuilding. The program also includes specific conditions for improving budgetary allocations for the justice sector. The implementation of the public expenditure review is part of the implementation of the program.

The Ministry of Justice is an administrative service created since the accession of Niger to independence in December 1960. Since 1999, the strengthening of the judiciary has been one of the government priorities in the context of the reform of the State in Niger and number of programs and strategies have been adopted and developed to address the issues in this field, such as a Judicial Reform Support Program (2003), Poverty Reduction Strategy (2001), Accelerated Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (2008), and etc. However, the justice sector, despite its position as a priority sector for building the rule of law and strong and credible institutions, is still poorly financed by the State with a budget allocation of less than 1% of the national budget.