GITEGA February 10th (ABP) – The Director of Legal Affairs and Litigation at the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Diomède Vyizigiro, moderated Tuesday, February 8, 2022 in Gitega (central Burundi), a meeting for the governors of the Gitega, Karusi, Ruyigi and Cankuzo provinces, on the implementation of Law No. 1/22 of July 25, 2014 regulating the recourse and direct action of the State and communes against their agents and their employees.
Mr. Vyizigiro said that the law carrying the recourse action is a law which allows the State to be able to turn against its employee or the worker who has done his job badly and who has caused harm to the citizens, to return the money disbursed to compensate or to repair the damages that had been suffered by the person because of the administrative act.
According to the director of legal affairs and litigation, now there will be a change in the way of doing things for the administrative staff of the judicial region of Gitega because, following the retrospective analysis already carried out since 2016 where there has been such awareness, there were positive changes in actions or lawsuits that the State of Burundi was losing.
He further added that even the huge budget that was used before 2016 for the repair of the damages caused by the administrative staff has decreased from less to less year by year till the present day. “The amount of conviction is currently very low compared to previous years in 2016,” he said.
Mr. Vyizigiro pointed out that these administrators have been made aware of the consequences of taking illegal and illegitimate decisions, because, according to him, the government of Burundi has lost 488 lawsuits from the year 2010 to 2021.
Using the example of the years 2011 and 2021, the Director of Legal Affairs and Litigation at the Ministry of Justice showed the participants a clear difference in the costs of conviction that the State paid for the two years. He indicated that the State paid more than one and a half billion in 2011 for 23 lost lawsuits while in 2021 it paid more than 7 million for 50 lost lawsuits.
Mr. Vyizigiro called on administrative officials to always bear in mind the key principles of legalistics, in particular legality, legitimacy and effectiveness, before taking decisions because the author of an administrative decision engages the civil liability of the legal person on which he depends, but that it can turn against him, once the fault is committed is strictly personal. There, he added, its dismemberments or the commune cannot be engaged.
He specified that the administration has the right to prosecute a person who has committed a recourse action for a period of 30 years. Regarding the expectations of this activity, the Director of Legal Affairs and Litigation hopes that these sensitized managers will now take legally justified, legitimized and effective decisions.
Note that this meeting also saw the participation of the communal administrators of these provinces, the general commissioners and responsible commissioners as well as other administrative officials from the various ministries of the country having management autonomy and legal personality, all working in the above provinces. top mentioned