The Hon. Chief Justice, Hon. Justice Bart Katureebe at the Launch of the Commercial Justice Reports
Kampala. The Chief Justice, Hon. Bart\r\nKatureebe has implored government to increase funding towards the Judiciary to\r\nimprove its efficiency.
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The\r\njudicial system in the country has for long grappled with a number of\r\nchallenges that have impacted on its efficiency and delivery. One of the major\r\nconcerns has always been inadequate funding from government.
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While\r\nlaunching commercial justice reports at Serena Hotel recently, Hon. Justice Katureebe\r\nrevealed that, despite the many challenges, the Commercial Court had dealt with\r\n90 per cent case backlog as a result of hard work and competence.
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He\r\nsaid, "Annual reports on the performance of the Commercial Court over the years\r\nhave vindicated its creation as a special division with its case disposal rate\r\noverriding the filing rate for most of the years since its inception in 1996.”
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The\r\nhead of the commercial court, Hon. Justice David K. Wangutusi said the court\r\nhas also incredibly reduced the trial time of dealing with commercial cases\r\nfrom more than five years to 18 months which has helped them minimize case\r\nbacklog at the court.
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The\r\ncommercial justice baseline survey released in 2001 highlighted a negative\r\nimpact of poor dispute resolution services on private sector development.\r\nSeventy per cent of the businesses surveyed that year described the system to\r\nbe expensive, slow and corrupt.
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To\r\ncounter these claims, the Judiciary rolled out a pilot project introducing\r\nSmall Claims Procedure which has helped to eliminate some of the shortcomings.\r\nAccording to Hon. Justice Geoffrey Kiryabwire(JCA), the chairperson of the Small\r\nClaims Implementation Committee, in the first year of its operation, Small\r\nClaims Procedure won the Public Service Innovation Award 2013 because of its\r\nimmediate positive impact the procedure had on the court users especially those\r\nin the small and medium business sector.
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Hon.\r\nJustice Kiryabwire said, "the recoveries under the Small Claims Procedure have\r\nrisen from Shs1.5bn from six pilot courts in 2013/2014 to Shs5.3bn in 2015.
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He\r\nfurther reported that out of the 26 courts running procedure, there is no\r\nstatistical backlog.
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The\r\nChief Justice urged the Government to take the Small Claims Procedure as part\r\nof the wealth creation program so as to support small and medium enterprises.
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Hon.\r\nJustice Wangutusi, however, said the court is now a victim of its own successes\r\nbecause many more people are coming to lodge cases with the court which has led\r\nto an overload.
Posted 17th, June 2016
