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USAID's Support Improves the Credibility of Benin's Judicial System.

Applying the full force of the law to those guilty of corruption is an important step toward establishing accountability. Despite various government efforts to combat corruption, many Beninese are losing confidence in the ability of the judiciary and other public institutions to prosecute high-level officials guilty of corruption. Thus, in an environment characterized by inefficient rule of law, where corruption is condoned within government circles, Beninese are not fully aware of the negative impact of this national plague on civil society. For example, corruption is so entrenched that judges flout the law with impunity.

Although USAID/Benin does not directly support Benin's judicial reform, it has provided assistance to the Supreme Audit Institutions (Office of the Inspector General of Finance and the Chamber of Accounts of the Supreme Court), which has started to pay off. Over the past five years, the Inspector General of Finance (IGF) performed several high-profile anti-corruption investigations including the Port Customs Office. IGF investigations of corrupt magistrates have made headlines in local newspapers for over two years. The investigations led to an embezzlement conviction of about 40 out of 100 active Beninese judges.

Prior to the outbreak of the embezzlement scandal that contravened judicial and payment procedures, judges were authorized reimbursements directly from the government's Treasury for investigative trips and transport of prisoners. The purpose of the direct reimbursement was to reduce the number of intermediaries who abuse the system by making fraudulent claims.

Up until the year 2003, the total amount of funds made available for those operations was 25 million CFA ($50,000) per year with a cumulative ceiling of 100 million CFA ($200,000). However, in 1998, the estimated total claims reimbursed reached 2 billion CFA ($4 million) and then skyrocketed to 7 billion CFA ($12,5 million) in 2002; 3 billion ($6 million) of which was claimed by judges alone. The public was scandalized by the size of these amounts, which prompted the IGF to conduct a nationwide audit. The investigations confirmed that there were material weaknesses in the system and fraudulent claims were rampant, often with complicity of public accountants.

Instead of reporting the findings to the Minister of Finance, as mandated by regulations, the IGF decided to inform the Chamber of Accounts of the Supreme Court (the independent judicial control unit) which in turn launched a comprehensive investigation resulting in court action against the accused persons. After 2 years of waiting to be tried, during which strong special interests conspired to influence the judges trying the cases, the accused persons admitted they were not the only culprits and affirmed that more judges would have been indicted if the IGF had covered a period beyond 5 years. In total, 99 culprits, including 27 magistrates, 45 court clerks, 19 civil servants of the treasury and 8 other accomplices were tried for alleged embezzlement. The trial was held in February 2004 and lasted more than three months. Verdicts included release from detention, reimbursement of embezzled funds, and jail sentences of up to 5 years. Some of the convicted have appealed the decisions.

With the conviction of almost 40% of its judges, Benin is now faced with a serious shortage of judges in its judicial system. Nevertheless, the sentencing of about 40% of corrupt judges is a step in the right direction to restoring credibility to the judicial system. Even though the general public thinks the verdict was not severe enough and believes that judges were lenient in prosecuting their peers, the outcome of the decision has been a major victory for Benin's efforts to promote democracy and good governance.

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