Minister Matia Kasaija on Monday appeared before the Committee to present the 3.48 trillion additional budget that has caused an increase of the proposed National Budget for the coming financial year 2021/2022 from 41.29 trillion initially presented by the Minister last week to 44.77 trillion.
On his part, the Chairperson of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee Jacob Oboth-Oboth noted that there is need to appreciate that Judiciary is not a department or agency but instead another arm of government that should be felt by all Ugandans and their budget should be supported by Parliament.
The Permanent Secretary of the Judiciary Pius Birgirimana has assured members of Parliament that the Judiciary has a mechanism to handle any internal conflicts that may exist in the judiciary.
Audit documents before PAC indicate that out of the 20.74 Billion Shillings, indicate that 16.88 Billion was spent by the Judiciary on different activities some of which were disposing of cases in different courts, installing new courts, training of staff, procuring vehicles and others.
This was during a Monday meeting with officials from the Judiciary led by the Permanent Secretary Pius Bigirimana. The team had appeared before the committee to respond to the Auditor General’s report for the financial year 2018/2019.
The Judiciary Permanent Secretary Pius Bigirimana today told Parliament that the nine billion Shillings system also known as the Electronic Court Case Management Information System (ECMIS), is expected to help quicken filing of cases, track them throughout the trial and provide progress updates to relevant players.
Erustus Kibirango, an advocate from Wetaka, Kibirango and Company welcomed the operationalization of the court saying many residents were spending extra costs to travel to Kampala to file cases in high courts.
Speaking to Journalists in Kampala, Jamson Karemani, the Spokesperson of Judiciary, said when it comes to election petitions, all judges from all divisions like criminal and civil will be called upon to come and beef-up the manpower for handling these petitions.
According to the judiciary, to demonstrate his readiness to take up the offer, Justice Katureebe virtually attended the prestigious appointment ceremony held in Shenzhen China and made an eight-minute speech where he largely shared his opinion and experience about the operations of the commercial courts.
Mabirizi argues that the law requires Electoral Commission to review the division of Uganda into constituencies within twelve months after the publication of census results, which wasn’t the case. It is on these grounds that he wants court to first block the elections pending the determination of his petition.
The three Court of Appeal Judges will be considering appeals arising from the same court between 2013 and 2017, according to a statement signed by the acting Court of Appeal Registrar Ayebare Tumwebaze.
The legal team led by Evans Ochieng says that the matter of Glaser’s waning health was brought to the attention of the courts several times, as a ground for his bail application. However, the system kept him incarcerated well knowing that his life was at stake.
Juliet Kusiima told PAC that she used to sign for the money on behalf of his supervisors she identified as Michael Okwalinga, the Senior Accounts Assistant, Accounts officer Julius Obai and Accountant Julius Mandu.
Nandala also told Kagole that the documents show that just in a space of one day, he withdrew another Shillings 29.8 million on June 29th, 2018 for the alleged travel of the Chief Justice to South Africa and questioned how the Chief Justice would travel to two destinations at the same time.
The new Deputy Attorney General Jackson Kafuuzi has said his first role in the Attorney General’s Office will be to deal with questionable court awards that are currently draining the judiciary.
Bugweri County MP Abdu Katuntu tasked the Judiciary officials to explain whether they are comfortable with the speed at which disputes before court are handled.
According to the budget estimates, Judiciary’s budget has been maintained at Shillings 181.61 billion. Bigirimana told MPs that the allocation is minimal for the institution and has left key activities for the coming financial year not funded. He appealed for an additional allocation of 26.5 billion shillings to purchase cars for judicial officials.
The meeting held at the EU Ambasodors residence in Kololo last night was led by the EU Head of Delegation Attilio Pacifici, and attended by representatives from EU partner states, the United States Ambassador to Uganda Deborah Malac and Officials from the Judiciary, led by the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe, Justice Minister Otafire Kahinda, and Attorney General William Byaruhanga.
The detectives were tasked by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to gather all documents showing the allotment of up to 32.8 billion Shillings that wired to staff personal accounts. Also required was the list of staff members who were advanced money, their personal Bank Account details and Bank Statements.
The money has been accumulating over the past years with an average of 5 billion shillings deposited every year on the judiciary’s bank account in Bank of Uganda.
