The Hon. Chief Justice signing a copy of the Annual JLOS Review Report 2015/16 looking on, Hon. Kahinda Otaffire and HE Kristian Schmidt
TheFour years of implementation of the Third Strategic Investment Plan (SIP III)have been a concerted and combined effort of Government, JLOS stakeholders andDevelopment Partners that has resulted in increased public trust, increasedstakeholder engagement, awareness and higher satisfaction by the people whoseek services from JLOS institutions.
Interms of impact, public confidence in JLOS institutions has increasedsignificantly from the baseline average of 26% in 2012 to 48%, while publicknowledge about JLOS services and institutions has increased to over 90% in2015/16 on the average. Public engagement with JLOS institutions and use ofJLOS services grew three fold on the average compared to the baselines.
Forthose persons that have accessed JLOS services the level of satisfaction hasincreased from the average baseline position of 59% to 72%. The index ofjudicial independence grew by 22% from 2.8 in 2014/15 to 3.41 in 2015/16,implying that judicial processes in Uganda have become more independent. Thecountry’s judicial independence ranking too has improved from position 128 in2014 to 91 in 2015/16 according the Global Competitiveness Report, 2016.
Accordingto the World Justice Project Report 2015 Uganda is ranked 68th in the World,9th Africa and the first in East Africa in accessibility and affordability ofcivil justice with a score of 0.43 out of 1 this is comparable to USA which hasa score of 0.47 out of 1. The country is also ranked in the 1st position inEast Africa and 12th in Africa in effectiveness of criminal investigation,adjudication and correctional systems as well as controlling criminal and civilconflict and the fight against violence (order and security) with a score of0.61 out of 1.
Thesector monitored and processed 10 critical bills that impact on JLOS servicedelivery including the fight against corruption, regulation of CSO’s,elections, functionality of LCCs, and vulnerability among others. Laws werealso enacted are that will promote national development objectives and improvethe environment for doing business in Uganda. As a result of the interventionsin legal reform and other innovations, Uganda moved from position 135 in 2014to 122 in 2015/16 in the doing business index. While the Global CompetitivenessReport 2015/2016 ranks Uganda’s competiveness at position 115 out of 144countries in the world. In terms of protection of property rights, Uganda’sranking improved from position 112 in 2014 to 97 in 2015/16 and its propertyrights index also increased by 14.4% from 3.4 in 2014 to 3.89 in 2015/16.
Thesector is now functionally present in 82% of the districts compared to 75%functional presence in 2014/15. Also the number of districts with a complete chain of infrastructure for frontline JLOS services increased from 53% in2014/15 to 59.8% in 2015/16 following completion of various constructionprojects in UPF, UPS, Court and DPP.
Followingappointment of staff, increased use of initiatives such as plea bargaining, investmentsin staff training, enhanced coordination and performance management the sectorrecorded a 20% reduction in pending cases, posting a case clearance rate of125%. As a result, the average length of stay on remand reduced from 10.5months to 10.4 months for capital offenders and case backlog reduced from 32%in 2014/15 to 25% in 2015/16. Use of ADR recorded a resounding success with a55% success rate compared to 26% in 2014/15 arising out of investments intraining and advocacy.
Thecrime rate reduced from 298 per 100,000 in 2014 to 296 per 100,000 in thereporting period despite the election period because of improved crime responseand coordination of criminal justice agencies. Also the quality ofinvestigation and prosecution improved as shown in the high conviction rate of61% over the reporting period.
Thesector continued to invest in correctional services and rehabilitation ofoffenders which resulted in a reduction in the rate of recidivism from 27% in2014/15 to 21%. This is one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world.
Thenumber of children arrested per 100,000 child population reduced to 8.4compared to 9.4 for every 100,000 child population in 2014/15 and 84.1%diversion rate of juveniles from formal judicial proceedings was registered.The challenge however is the higher than targeted number of children on remandper 100,000 standing at 2.07 for every 100,000 child population compared to thetargeted 01 child per 100,000 child population.
Interms of human rights observance, the number of reported human rightsviolations by JLOS agencies reduced by 41% during the reporting period. This ispartly due to the adoption of a human rights culture and accountability andsensitization of police and prisons that have always featured high in terms ofhuman rights violations.
Improvementswere recorded in UPS with 90% of the prison units eliminating the Bucket systemand there are on-going efforts to provide decent water-borne sanitationfacilities in all prisons by the end of 2017. However, the welfare of prisonwarders and lower police cadres remains largely unaddressed, especially withrespect to housing and living conditions. In addition, the congestion inprisons remains high with the existing holding capacity exceeded by up to twotimes.
Thefight against corruption is on course with 12% increased case disposal andimproved internal disciplinary mechanisms that were implemented. The ChiefJustice strengthened the inspectorate function in Judiciary, by appointing aJustice of the Supreme Court as Chief Inspector of Courts.
Theperformance would have been much higher; however, the sector faces variouschallenges that must be addressed to enhance or even maintain the currentlevels of performance. One of the challenges is the slow, expensive and complexbusiness processes that are largely manual. These among others have led toprevalence of high lead times, increased cost of access, opportunisticcorruption and slow decision making. It is therefore important to re-engineerand automate most of the business processes.
Challengesalso still remain with case disposal in some areas such as the Human RightsCommission and Judicial Service Commission that were affected by the expiry ofthe terms of service of their Commissioners. These institutions need to besupported to clear their backlog.
Thesector institutions remain largely urban based and unavailable in 18% of thedistricts while many operate from premises not fit for the purpose. This iscompounded by the high cost of rent which has eroded funds required forcritical operations. There is therefore need to fast track the construction ofthe JLOS house project and justice centres country wide. Efforts should also beput at opening new service points and deconcentrating service delivery. Theconcept of a one stop centre should also be strengthened.
Theother challenge is the changing crime trends and proliferation of new crimessuch as cybercrime, trafficking in persons, terrorism, white collar crime andother violent crime including sex and gender based violence which tests thepreparedness of most crime fighting agencies. This is made worse by the factthat the more sophisticated crimes that are cross border crimes in nature areon the rise. There is need to enhance crime response and invest in strategiesto prevent the occurrence of such crimes.
Justicedelivery is a function of numbers. The sector requires the right number ofstaff both in quantity and quality to deliver effective and expeditiousservices. This is not possible with the current judge to population ratio of 1:720,000, a police to population ratio of 1:764, and warder to prisoner ratio of1:7.
Oneof the factors that continue to dampen public confidence in the justice systemis corruption both real and perceived. It is therefore necessary that thesector efforts to fully implement its anti-corruption strategy are supported.Initiatives to deal with public complaints should be strengthened and supportedwhile internal disciplinary processes should be respected.
Byand large, given the performance of the sector over the SIPIII period andduring the reporting period, there is a strong belief that enhanced efficiencyand effectiveness in service delivery enhances public satisfaction and growspublic trust. It is therefore important that efforts which promote greaterpublic satisfaction with JLOS services should be harnessed and strengthenedunder the proposed new strategic planning framework. In addition, the 3cs(communication, coordination and cooperation) which is the foundation uponwhich the sector is built should be demystified among all sector stakeholdersfor the sector remain valid, vocal and visible.
[Adopted from the 2015/16 JLOS AnnualPerformance Report]
Posted 27th, October 2016
