Pius Bigirimana, the Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Judiciary
Uganda’s Judiciary is banking on IT to curb corruption and dispense justice faster. To implement the NRM Manifesto commitments for 2021-2026, the Judiciary pledged zero tolerance to corruption in the judicial system by introducing systems and periodic monitoring of Judicial Officers. It was then that ECCMIS was introduced. ECCMIS is an IT-based system that automates the entire process of a court case life cycle right from filing (e-filing) to archival (e-archival). The ECCMIS was commissioned on 19th October 2021 and the ECCMIS Go-Live was launched on 1st March 2022. ECCMIS minimizes human-to-human contact in the delivery of services and thus reduces incidences of corruption.
While updating the country on the progress made in implementing the NRM manifesto 2021-2026 commitments at the Office of the President Auditorium on Monday, Permanent Secretary and Secretary to the Judiciary, Pius Bigirimana said the roll out of ECCMIS has increased the case filing rate by 20.6% in the courts operating ECCMIS.
According to Bigirimana, the average case completion rate has also increased at a rate of 17.5% in the courts operating ECCMIS.
He added that ECCMIS has increased Non Tax Revenue (NTR) collections from Shs. 5Bn to Shs 9.2Bn over the period under review.
On strengthening the Inspectorate of Courts, the PS said that the number of Inspectors has increased from 3 to 5 so as to carry out more inspections and investigations. On average, he added that a total of 157 Courts are inspected and 563 complaints are investigated in a financial year. He revealed that from 2021 to 2024, disciplinary action has been taken against 22 Judicial officers.
In terms of recruitment, Bigirimana said that from July 2021 to 2024, the Judiciary has received a total of 1,063 appointments and promotions and they include; Justices of Supreme Court (3); Justices of Court of Appeal (5); Judges of the High court (59); Registrars (7); Deputy Registrars (50); Assistant Registrars (23); Chief Magistrates (122); Magistrates Grade One (402); and Administrative Staff (392).
At the end of FY 2020/21, Bigirimana said that the coverage of courts across the country was at 51%. However, he noted that the coverage of courts across the country is currently at 80%.
“Judiciary has 190 courts in its own premises, 70 in rented premises, while 14 are in District and Sub-County buildings,” said Bigirimana.
At the end of FY 2020/21, Courts, on average, completed cases faster within 7 months (214.7 days). The backlog of the Judiciary stood at 32% (of the 161,054 total pending cases in courts, 51,748 cases were backlog).
To date, Bigirimana said that Courts, on average, complete cases faster by six months (177 days).
Case backlog has also reduced, he added. “Over the past three years, there has been a gradual decrease in the case backlog. In FY 2021/22, the backlog was 30.11%, FY 2022/23 (27.48%), FY 2023/24 (26.32%) and as the end of September FY 2024/25, the case backlog stands at 25.03%.”
The Government has since FY 2015/16 enhanced pay for Judicial officers. As at end FY 2020/21, the upper bench had attained 100% of the approved pay target while Judicial officers of the lower bench had attained over 50% of the approved pay target as: Registrars- 57%, Chief Magistrates-54%, Magistrate Grade 1- 64%.
According to FY 2024/25 pay structure, Judicial officers of the lower bench have so far attained an average of 84% of the approved pay target as follows: Chief Registrar – 100%, Registrars – 75%, Deputy Registrars – 72%, Assistant Registrars – 70%, Chief Magistrates – 70%, Magistrate Grade One – 92%
In terms of budgetary provisions, the Judiciary approved budget for FY 2020/21 was Shs 199,077,590,548. The Judiciary Budget for FY 2024/25 is Shs 442,262,630,535. Bigirimana said that there has been an increment in the budget of Shs 243,185,039,987 since the FY 2020/21.
The Judiciary had also committed to exploit processes for remote online adjudication of cases drawing from COVID-19 lessons. Video Conferencing System (VCS) was installed in courts.
As at the end of FY 2020/21, the Judiciary had five (5) courts with video conferencing systems installed at:Commercial Division of the High Court and 4 High Court Circuits of Mbarara, Arua, Masindi and Masaka.
In a bid to continue embracing online hearing of cases, and learning from the effects of COVID 19, the Judiciary has installed additional Video Conferencing Systems bring a total to seventeen (17). These are installed at: Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court at Kampala, Commercial and Criminal Division, 11 High Court Circuits (Mbarara, Arua, Masindi, Masaka, Jinja, Soroti, Lira, Fort Portal, Kabale, Mubende and Mbale) and Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court.
Challenges
Bigirimana says that the numbers of Judicial Officers are still insufficient to match the justice demands. In addition, he said that the number of administrative staff has not been increased to match the Judicial Officers, which has negatively affected justice delivery. Only 31% of the approved staff structure is filled, said Bigirimana.
Government made a commitment to progressively adjust the budget for the Judiciary upwards to Shs 800 Billion by FY 2025/26. The Judiciary’s budget has been Shs199 Billion in the FY 2020/2021, Shs 376 Billion in FY 2021/22, Shs 381 Billion in FY 2022/2023 and Shs 392 Billion for FY 2023/24.
“The approved budget FY 2024/25 is Shs 442 Billion for which it still does not match the proposed increment to UGX 800 Billion. This has slowed down the scale up of judicial services across the Country,” said Bigirimana.
To this, the Judiciary recommends the following:
Improve the budgetary provision
“We request Government to fulfill its commitment by increasing the Judiciary budget from the current UGX 392 billion to UGX 800 billion by FY 2025/26” said Bigirimana.
Equip key justice chain institutions
According to Bigirimana, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Uganda Police Force, the Judicial Service Commission and the Office of the Attorney General, among others, need to be sufficiently equipped with both financial and human resources in order to be able to reduce case backlog from our Courts.
Fast-track the integration of systems (PROCAMIS and ECCMIS).
With integration of the systems, Bigirimana says that there will be easy access to information and it will be time saving.
“Once a case is filed from PROCAMIS it will reflect on ECCMIS and vice versa,” said Bigirimana.
