Members of Parliament sitting on the Budget Committee have raised a red flag over what they called under allocation of funds to the Judiciary which is battling a huge case backlog that requires money for judicial officers to dispose of it.
Led by Committee Chairperson Amos Lugolobi the MP for Ntenjeru South, the legislators accused Finance Minister Matia Kasaija of undermining a presidential directive to provide up to UGX800 billion to the Judiciary in the Budget for the Financial Year 2021/2022.
However, the Finance Ministry has allocated in the 2021/2022 financial year budget that is being processed by Parliament, UGX375.05 billion to the Judiciary which is about 0.8 percent of the total resource envelope of UGX44.77 trillion.
“The Budget Committee together with the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs had a meeting with the Judiciary and they told us the President had directed you to increase their budget to UGX800 billion. But we see you have put in the corrigenda UGX373 billion and since we are privy to this directive, we may want to see it implemented” Lugolobi said.
The MPs said that the judiciary is worried that it may not expeditiously handle the election petitions filed by the losers of the January 14 Parliamentary elections and those of the local governments’ elections because of lack of funding.
The Judiciary has received over 100 election petitions that need to be heard and determined by the High Court. The appeal process for election petitions only ends at the Court of Appeal level for those who do not agree with High Court decisions.
“It is our understanding that you have defied the order of the President to increase the funding for the Judiciary to UGX800 billion. At the moment the election petitions are at a standstill because there is no money to handle them” added Lugolobi.
Minister Kasaija in his response acknowledged receipt of the President’s directive but the position has since changed after engaging in meetings including the most recent one held on Saturday at State House, Entebbe.
“I was with the President on Saturday and he told me to go and do what is appropriate. The reality is there is a shortage of resources” The Minister stated.
MPs demanded to have a look at the signed Minutes of the meeting with the President so that they get satisfied that he had backed the allocation of UGX373.05 billion which is UGX426.95 billion to the cash strapped Judiciary.
Uganda’s Corporate Finance and Capital Markets Luminary, Miriam Ekirapa Musaali, Passes OnChief Justice Alphose Owiny-Dollo on February 7 met with President Museveni at State House, Entebbe in what was later revealed as having been a discussion concerning the meager resources the government allocates to the Judiciary.
This meeting which followed up on a request the Chief Justice had made publicly to the President during the function to start the new law year on February 5, was questioned by City Law Hassan Male Mabirizi who filed an application seeking the Chief Justice to step aside from the bench that was hearing the election Petition filed by the January 14 Presidential election runner-up Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine.
The Chief Justice dismissed lawyer Mabirizi’s application days before Kyagulanyi, the National Unity Platform’s leader would withdraw his election petition on several grounds including the lack of impartiality by some of the Justices on the bench.
At the function to mark the new law year, the Chief Justice pleaded to the President to prevail over the Ministry of Finance to avail more resources for the recruitment of more Judges and Magistrates in order for the Courts to deal with the case backlog.
By the end of 2020, over 150,654 cases were still pending in the various courts of Uganda, something that implies a huge burden on the overstretched judicial officers.
“How come it’s easy to create a constituency with a name but it’s impossible to appoint a magistrate grade 1 to operate that constituency. Your Excellency your next task is to ensure that people can walk 5km to find a court not 40 km,” the Chief Justice said then.
Currently, the Judiciary is working on a budget of UGX199 billion which is far below the allocations of the other arms of government. Parliament is running a budget of UGX698.3 billion and has had its budget increased to UGX831.9 billion in the coming financial year.
The MPs during yesterday’s meeting with the Minister did not agree on the position of how much should be allocated but the Budget Committee is expected to sit this week to finalise the budget before making a report and recommendations to the Committee of Supply which has up to April 30 to approve the budget.
