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Courts run out of cash, activities stall
At the Kololo based Anti-Corruption Court and the International Crimes Division of the High Court, staff and court attendants yesterday said they had spent close to three weeks without water and power. File photo
What you need to know:
- However, by 2pm, a truck of water was dispatched at the Kololo based courts but officials said delivery of the truck was not sustainable and costly.
Staff at the courts further revealed that judicial officers and registrars no longer receive newspapers.
Courts of Judicature are in crisis after spending three weeks without cash, running water, power and sundries that facilitate the administration of justice.
Staff in the judiciary contend that the courts have not received operational funds for July to September making them unable to pay bills.
At the Kololo based Anti-Corruption Court and the International Crimes Division of the High Court, staff and court attendants yesterday said they had spent close to three weeks without water and power.
A staff, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal, revealed that they have a water bill of Shs5.3 million while their pre-paid electricity metre ran out and has not been loaded.
“Government announced the release of funds to ministries, departments and agencies but imagine [this] quarter is ending without the money being disbursed to the courts. The lack of operational funds has hindered our work because we do not have file folders, stationery and other sundries,” the staff said.
The judges attached to the Anti-Corruption Court were not present yesterday and the cases that had been scheduled were only adjourned by the chief magistrate.
One of the cases adjourned involves the former managing director of Crown Converters Limited, Mr Aniket Patel, who is on remand over embezzlement of Shs1.8 billion which was extended to October 10 this year.
Stalled activities
A source at the court said day-to-day work has stalled and other court activities such as Plea Bargaining, Small Claims Procedures and training of judicial officers, have been affected.
“Can you imagine they released funds for health run for Fridays and issued new identity cards for all staff but no funds to buy paper and pens for judicial officers? Even when a staff dies, it is hard to get funds to facilitate burial arrangements,” one of the staff, who declined to be named because he is not allowed to speak to the press, said.
However, by 2pm, a truck of water was dispatched at the Kololo based courts but officials said delivery of the truck was not sustainable and costly.
Staff at the courts further revealed that judicial officers and registrars no longer receive newspapers.
Mr Pius Bigirimana, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, said:
“We are sorting out the issues, do not worry.”
Mr Solomon Muyita, the Judiciary’s senior communications officer, described the complaints as unfortunate but attributed the mess to the transition from one accounting officer to another.
“Our people know very well that we are in a transition and it is unfortunate that the transition came at the beginning of the financial year. For the entire month of July, we did not have an accounting officer because the one we had, the contract had not been renewed,” Mr Muyita explained.
He added: “We regret the inconveniences caused especially to our court users.”
