ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES

Assessment or determination of the claims is done by the Tribunal Board of Assessors under the headship of the Chairman. The assessors in the current Board comprise one financial assessor and two legal assessors. Under Rules 17 to 19 of the National Compensation Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1997 subject to availability of funds for distribution, where the Tribunal considers that a claim is ready for determination, the Tribunal shall give 14 days written notice informing the claimant that the claim is ready for determination. In practice this notice has become a Notice Summoning/Calling the claimant to appear for assessment. The Rules make provision for assessment in the absence of the claimant provided he/she is informed of the award within seven days. This Rule was followed until late 1999 when it was discovered that some "pseudo claimants" were fraudulently, collecting cheques belonging to other claimants. The result. was that the Tribunal was again called upon to pay the genuine claimant. This led to financial loss of the compensation. Internal practice has developed where an assessment is deferred to next sitting to enable the claimant or his/her representative to appear. The matter is adjourned twice and thereafter the matter is struck off the cause list with liberty to apply for its restoration and claimant is notified. In essence the claim is not dismissed. This has scared "pseudo claimants" because during assessment probing questions are put to the claimant. The claimant gives evidence under oath and if a lie is discovered, the matter is referred to Police for further investigations. Some matters have actually ended upon criminal trials for offences like attempts to obtain money by false pretences. 

The other Rule which is offended by the practice relates to determination of the claims in ascending order of size. The Tribunal is supposed to assess the claims starting with the smallest and proceeding the ascending order. It is practically difficult to implement this because one may just inflate his/her claim thereby deprive himself/herself of an opportunity to have early determination. Further, it would be unfair to assess a matter registered in the year 2000 before one which was registered in 1995 purely on basis of the claim size. The practice embedded in the Tribunal is to follow the registration numbers strictly except for old age and/or illness. Where the claim is small, the Tribunal makes a final award and where it is a large claim, the Tribunal makes an interim compensation award whose maximum is K20,000.00. The final awards too do not exceed K20,000.00 for these small claims.  

The Tribunal can make  monetary awards for compensation to the claimant or agent or his/her bank account. If the claimant is a minor, the award should be made to the District Commissioner to open a trust account until the claimant attains majority age. Hitherto, the Tribunal has confined itself to monetary awards and it has ordered payment by instalments where funds have been minimal. However, the Tribunal has powers to make orders such as restitution of property and other non-monetary awards. In practice this has not yet happened because there is need for training or engaging expertise service. The award made by the Tribunal is reviewable by the Tribunal if within 21 days, the claimant notifies the Tribunal about his/her objection to the amount or type of award. The objection must be supported by fresh information or documents. Similarly the Tribunal may review an award on its own Volition before payment is made to the claimant. The appeal mechanism against Tribunal awards is by way of Judicial Review in the High Court. 

G.M. Chimasula Phiri
CHAIRMAN - NATIONAL COMPENSATION TRIBUNAL
LLB (Hons) LLM (Comm. Law) Bristol