RURAL DEVELOPMENT PS SENTENCED
Court mallet. Photo credit: SIBC.
The Magistrate Court has sentenced the Permanent Secretary of Rural Development Selina Boso to four months in jail suspended for two years.
The Court earlier convicted her of unwillfully failing to furnish information and produce documents on rural constituency development funds requested by the Ombudsman and members of his staff.
Her sentence of four months suspended for two years means – if Ms Boso commits any crime within the period of two years – she will immediately go to jail for four months.
The Court also fined her two hundred dollars to be paid by the end of business today.
Meanwhile, handing down the sentence today, Chief Magistrate Emmanuel Kouhota says the Court on behalf of the people has a duty to defend the Constitution as well as the Constitutional mandates given to other authorities and Constitutional Offices like the Ombudsman.
Chief Magistrate Kouhota says the Court has the duty to impose sentences to deter people from preventing or obstructing the
performance of their Constitutional functions and to show the public disapproval of such actions.
He says the Ombudsman Act’s penalty for such offence which Parliament passed more than thirty years ago was significant then, but today may seem insignificant.