Acting Commissioner of the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption Lavi Rokoika. [File Photo]

The Acting Commissioner of the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption Lavi Rokoika, says bringing back a dedicated anti-corruption court could help reduce the growing backlog of cases and speed up justice.

Fiji currently lacks a specialized court after the High Court and Magistrates Court’s Anti-Corruption Divisions were dissolved under the 2023 High Court (Amendment) Bill.

Rokoika says the current case delays are largely due to limited court availability and backlogs within the judicial system, with many corruption cases waiting months before trial dates are set.

She highlighted this while responding to a question on the re-establishment of the specialized court before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence for the consolidated review of FICAC’s 2020–2023 Annual Reports

“It will help with the rolling of the cases, because I believe right now, what we’re doing is we’re fighting for trial time. There’s no hearing time for, I think this was from June or July this year, we couldn’t book a hearing date, and so most of our cases, the diary of the bench is full, they’re all next year. So if that is something that Parliament could look into, that will greatly help with the rolling of the cases within the Commission.”

Rokoika adds that the delays in the court process is also challenging as it affects the ability to successfully prosecute older cases.

“Witnesses not remembering what happened. It was too long ago when that happened. Some witnesses die, some witnesses migrate. Those are the main problems that the prosecutors have to face. Again, if it’s faster in court, maybe the witnesses won’t die, and witnesses will still remember. So there’s a lot of factors that affect the length of the time that the cases are actually pending in court.”

Meanwhile, the Commission has embarked on implementing its new strategic plan, launched last month, which aims to improve efficiency through graded case management, stricter turnaround times, and enhanced internal monitoring systems.

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