ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNALS IN ETHIOPIA: EXPLORING THE ACCESSIBILITY AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE FEDERAL CIVIL SERVANTS’ ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL

Abstract

Administrative tribunals are established for many justifications. One of these tribunals in Ethiopia is the Federal Civil Servants Administrative Tribunal. The Tribunal is entrusted to render administrative justice for aggrieved civil servants. To meaningfully realize its mandate, the Tribunal has to be accessible to litigants and institutionally independent. This paper examines to what extent the Tribunal is accessible and institutionally autonomous in rendering administrative justice. To this end, it consults relevant provisions from the FDRE Constitution, other relevant laws, some decided cases, and relevant literature. In addition, the interview was used to garner certain data. The findings indicate that the Tribunal is not autonomous and accessible to aggrieved civil servants. Having made a detailed analysis on the issues, it is recommended that the Tribunal should be re-established as a separate institution which should be accountable to the Prime Minister. On top of that, more permanent chambers should be created in regional states to maintain accessibility.