Judges, rattled by substantial cuts of their budget next financial year, say they may hear fewer cases.
According to a statement from the ministry of finance, a copy of which The Observer has seen, judges’ transport refunds, fuel, sitting allowances and facilitation of court witnesses will be slashed in the financial year 2017/ 2018.
To finance ministry officials, those allowances are not considered priority areas for funding. But in interviews on Wednesday, judges warned they will scale back in their work to cope with the painful budget cuts.
The budget cuts take effect on July 1, 2017. From that date, judges and magistrates will get less fuel, less allowances to hear criminal cases and fewer new cars will be bought, among other austerity measures.
Worst-hit will be the Court of Appeal. In the previous years, the Kampala-based court decided to take its services closer to the up- country people. It spent considerable resources travelling the country and hearing cases in far flung areas.
The cuts, however, are no surprise. On January 30, 2017 during the launch of the new law year at the High court, chief justice Bart Katureebe condemned the slashing of the judiciary’s budget by Shs 6.8 billion to Shs 109.4 billion.
But the picture of the depth and breadth of the cuts wasn’t painted clearly at that event until the ministry of finance released the statement detailing the cuts.
In the financial year 2016/ 2017, according to records, the judiciary received Shs 116.5 billion, compared to Shs 93.2 billion for 2015/16, and Shs 83.06 billion in 2014/15.
Katureebe said the cuts will mean the judiciary wouldn’t be able to auto- mate its courts as planned, construct more court and institutional houses, increase the operational expenses and pay emoluments to the increased number of judicial officers and staff.
“I am, therefore, calling upon government to re- store and, better still, increase the judiciary budget to meet its needs,” Justice Katureebe pleaded, “I call upon government to weigh very carefully what such cuts mean for the administration of justice to the people of Uganda, and the impact this has on other aspects such as attraction of investment.”
Instead, the judiciary’s budget to buy new cars was slashed by 50 percent – from Shs 3.6 billion to Shs 1.8 billion. The vehicle maintenance budget was also cut by Shs 300m – something that will hit magistrates hardest.
“When the judge has got a new car, they give the one he or she had to the magistrate. This means such old cars need constant revamping which won’t be possible with these cuts,” said Solomon Muyita, the judiciary’s senior communication officer.
Without cars, the judiciary insists, administration of land justice will become more problematic since magistrates won’t be able to visit locus in quo (the place where the dispute originates) as the law demands.
Budgets for refreshments for judges during long court sessions, conferences and workshops, advertising plus publishing periodicals have been considerably cut.
RATIONAL
In a correspondence to all accounting officers, dated December 19, 2016, Patrick Ocailap, the deputy secretary to the treasury, explained the rationale for the cuts.
Ocailap explained that on December 19, 2016, cabinet reviewed the budget framework paper and directed that the budget strategy should incorporate several interventions. Such interventions, according to Ocailap, included increasing food production, food security and value addition.
The interventions, he said, would also cater for funding of oil roads and bridges in order to achieve oil production by the year 2020. Thus, Ocailap wrote that an additional Shs 2,186 billion had been mobilized from external revenue sources, efficiency savings (budget cuts) and external financing to fund the above priorities.
HITTING THE POOR
Reacting to the austerity measures, the head of the Anti-Corruption court, Justice Lawrence Gidudu, said his court won’t be affected at all. He said such cuts would hurt the High court Criminal division where the “poor” are tried.
“The people who are tried here [Anti-Corruption court] are well off, they can even afford five lawyers,” Gidudu said. “But those who are going to suffer are those who are tried in the High court Criminal division; they are normally accused of crimes such as rape, defilement and murder, they don’t have personal lawyers so they get state lawyers, now without money, that won’t be possible,” he added.
In a telephone interview on Wednesday, the head of the Commercial court, Justice David Wangutusi, said budget cuts will increase cases of mob justice.
“If there are no criminal sessions, what do you think will happen?” Justice Wangutusi asked.
“If land cases are not determined, what do you think will happen? You can decide not to hear cases but people will sort themselves out,” he added.
Justice Wangutusi warned that without trials, prison cells, which are already overcrowded, are now going to “flood” with inmates.
“We have had an increase in people who are accused of several things; of which 51 percent are on remand and 49 percent are not on remand.” Justice Wangutusi explained. “Keeping people on remand without trial violates their human rights and it’s against article 28 of the Constitution,” he said.
Last year, even before the present budget cuts, the ongoing trial of Muslim clerics who are accused of murder and terrorism was stopped for lack of money.
At one point, Lino Anguzu, the principal state attorney, told court that although he had several witnesses to present for cross-examination, he needed the court’s guidance on how he would pay for their transport, accommodation and meals allowances.
The events at the International Crimes division (ICD) have opened a lid on the serious cash problems in the judiciary. For instance, the hearing of the case against former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander Col Thomas Kwoyelo has been delayed due to lack of funds.
Kwoyelo is facing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity before the Gulu-based ICD. Muyita confirmed that hearing of Kwoyelo’s case, which was scheduled to start in August 2016, had been postponed indefinitely.
Justice Wangutusi suggested that judges are already working with so little.
“Already there has been nothing at all,” Wangutusi said, “Then we hear of the cuts, so I don’t know what they are really cutting be- cause there is nothing for us.”
dkiyonga@observer.ug