Administrative court doesn’t protect administrators – Ngu Ngwa

Justice Ngu Ngwa Augustine, President of the South West Regional Administrative Court has told The Cameroon Journal that the court will sit in its maiden substantive session on October 6. He hinted that hundreds of cases against the state of Cameroon have been filed in his court.

He, however, promised that the court will examine every case on its merit, stating in clear terms that the Administrative court is not out to protect administrators, but rather to protect the interest of the state of Cameroon. The court does not hear criminal matters and so, at no time will the court hand down prison terms.

The court will sit in ordinary session every 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month. Justice Ngu Ngwa was interviewed by The Journal’s Atia Azohnwi.

What do you mean by you are going to start sitting on October 6, when we have had lots of decisions from the court already?

That’s true. But the Administrative Court (AC) has two jurisdictions. The first jurisdiction is that of the President of the court. The President hears urgent applications – urgent applications could be an urgent motion or an application for the stay of execution of an administrative order. Those two categories of matters are heard by the president alone or by a judge he appoints for that purpose.

The second jurisdiction of the AC is that of the court sitting in a panel. The court sits as a panel of three. We call that sitting in substantive matters. This is when all the three magistrates of the court sit in one session.

So far, it is only the jurisdiction of the President that has been functioning. That is where you have been getting the decisions that have come from the court. That is why what we are starting on October 6 is the court sitting as a full panel.

May we know how you qualify some matters as urgent?

When you bring an application for stay-of-execution of an administrative order, we consider it as urgent.

For example, an administrator can take an order sealing your fish store where you have sent in fish amounting to hundreds of millions. May be it was sealed when you had all your documents, but the documents were not handy when the administrator was doing a control. If you think that the administrative decision sealing your fish store is wrong because in actual fact you have all your documents, you must engage immediately to call for the decision to be revoked.

The cancellation of an administrative act is a substantive jurisdiction, which means for an administrative act to be cancelled; all the three magistrates must be sitting at the same time. An administrative court is a little different from the other courts in the sense that if your fish store is sealed by an administrator, for example, you cannot just come to the court. You must first write to the administrator who gave the act telling him how wrong the act is and for him to cancel the act. When you write to him, the law gives him three months within which to take one of three decisions; realise his fault and cancel the administrative act, he could write to you to insist that he stands on his act and he could receive your application for cancellation and make no reply. When he responds and it prejudices you or he stays without responding, you have to act immediately.

But with your fish sealed in a store, you cannot wait for three months; because at the time the three months expire, you will have nothing else left, the fish would have decayed. The law gives you room to take steps to reduce your losses. As soon as you start the process to cancel the act, you can come the next day and present the case to us so that we can suspend execution of the said act so that you can sell your fish first before the legality of the administrative act is determined. That is why we consider the matter as urgent. You have to proof to the court that the matter is urgent.

How many of such urgent matters have you heard this far?

We have taken not less than 10 decisions in urgent matters already. I cannot go enumerating them.

How many cases are pending before the substantive bench of the South West Regional Administrative Court?

We have several matters, but on October 6, we have seven matters. We have matters here in their hundreds. On October 6, there will be a ruling in an urgent application that has been made and then there will be six substantive matters for the cancellation of various administrative acts.

Can your court send somebody to prison?

The administrative court is a civil court and so it doesn’t send people to Prison. We have only a civil jurisdiction. It is not only when somebody goes to prison that you can judge the strength of a court. We don’t have a criminal jurisdiction. We are here to see the regularity of administrative acts. So, we are very close to the administration. The other judicial courts are a little further away from the administration. This court is closer. Its purpose is to ensure that the administrator works within the ambits of the law. It is not a court against the administration.

Can an Administrator be dragged to your court in his name?

You cannot sue the administrator in his name. He acts on behalf of the state. A case always starts and finishes without any administrator coming to court. We don’t need them in court. The defendant before this court is the state of Cameroon. So long as the thing is done by an agent of the State, whether it is a Divisional Officer, Senior Divisional Officer, Mayor or Governor, policeman or a delegate, minister or the President himself.

Are you now confirming that the court is out to protect overzealous administrators?

We are not protecting administrators; we are protecting the state, to make sure that the state agents work within the ambits of the law.

If a matter is not against the state of Cameroon, it does not come to this court. The first defendant must be the state of Cameroon. A sister court in Yaoundé has received well over 1000 matters.