Daldala seeraa alaa to’achuu: rakkoowwan seeraa fi hojimaata qaamolee haqaa naannoo oromiyaa keessatti mul’atan

Abstract

Illicit trade adversely affects socio-economy of a nation. Particularly, it shrinks government revenue, distorts market, collapses local industries, and endangers health, safety and security. Ethiopia is one of the nations that are challenged by illicit trade for which it has devised controlling mechanisms such as enacting appropriate laws and establishing law enforcement agencies. Justice sectors (the judiciary, the prosecutors, and the police) are the chief law enforcement agencies that interpret the laws, render decisions, and enforce the same. They are principally empowered to seize, prosecute and adjudicate illicit trade activities and control illicit trade and its effects. However, the Oromia Regional National Government Justice Sectors are, as the situation demands, not controlling, prosecuting, and adjudicating illicit trade activities for different reasons. For instance, inadequate awareness of justice sector professionals of the region on trade regulations, customs and standards, the absurdity and uncertainty of the federal and regional laws, underperformance of criminal investigations, imprecision and incompleteness of prosecutions, delay and unfairness of court decisions, and wanting cooperation and undetermined efforts of the pertinent government agencies have made some contribution to the escalation of illicit trade undertakings. It is certainly known that without the effort required to be made by the justice sectors the attempt to control illicit trade could not be made possible. Therefore, it is mainly important to enable the justice sectors render services that combat illicit trade. Accordingly, among other things, it is advisable to raise the justice sectors professionals’ awareness of the relevant laws specifically of the trade competition and consumers protection, coffee quality control and marketing, and customs proclamations as to jurisdiction, to clarify the discrepancy between the federal and regional laws, to improve investigations, prosecutions and adjudications, and to advance professional and ethical behaviors of the professionals.