Chief Justice of Uganda, Bart Katureebe has asked government to address the existing funding and staffing gaps within the judicial system if the Judiciary is to effectively do its work.
Although the Chief Justice reported good performance of the Judiciary in 2017 with about 175,000 cases disposed off, he said that these efforts are dampened by challenges ranging from logistics, finances and human resources.
“Officers worked hard but this was dampened by the industrial action by judicial officers. We ask government to work on the root causes that include better pay,” Katureebe said. He was Monday speaking at the opening of the 2018 New Law Year at the High Court in Kampala.
In general terms, he noted that the judicial sector still suffers funding constraints and sometimes shortfalls in the resources appropriated by the government.
In the financial year 2016/17, the Judiciary received Shs 127 billion which was 50% of the funds requested and of the Shs 5.9 billion initially allocated to the Judiciary development budget, only Shs 1.4 was released.
“The development budget is so critical because it is out of this budget that we purchase vehicles, equipment as well as construct and renovate buildings. We ask that Ministry of Finance does not cut this budget,” Katureebe said.
He said that the sector still spends hefty sums of money (Shs 10 billion annually) on renting premises for courts yet this money is often delayed resulting into additional financial penalties by landlords.
The Chief Justice also highlighted the need to recruit more human resource to fill the staffing capacity that is currently inadequate to execute the workload. He said that the staffing gaps currently stands at 40% with over 300 judicial officers needed.
He asked that government considers exempting the Judiciary from the recruitment ban saying that it is not just a human rights issue but also a security issue.
That notwithstanding, the Chief Justice said that the Judiciary registered significant gains in reducing the case backlog in the concluded year. The backlog was brought down from 34% to 25% mainly attributed to dispute resolution methods such as plead bargaining and mediation.
In 2017, 130 cases in the Commercial Court were settled through mediation while 1,500 cases (20% of which were criminal) were resolved through plea bargaining.
Katureebe proposed that priority in disposal of cases be given to homicide, land and child related matters, commercial cases, sexual and domestic violence.
At the same event, the Deputy Attorney General, Mwesigwa Rukutana said that government was in plans to start the construction of the new Judiciary headquarters in Naguru.
He also said that the Administration of Judiciary Bill which contains provisions on the retirement benefits for judicial officers will soon be tabled in Parliament.
