Participants with the Chief Justice at the launch of the Judiciary score card
On Wednesday March 28, 2018; the Chief Justice, Hon. Justice Bart M. Katureebe, launched the Judiciary Score Card, a tool which assesses the performance of the Judiciary. The scorecard is meant to measure the performance of judicial officers from the perception formed by various stakeholders. It contains performance measurements and parameters that are linked to vision, mission, values and mandate of the judiciary as given by the constitution.
According to the scorecard, an initiative by Centre for Public Interest Law (CEPIL), Arua High Court circuit attained the highest score of 97.3 per cent in the overall assessment.
The courts were assessed on six parameters which included: Fairness in the administration of justice impartiality, professionalism, certainty, behaviour and attitude.
The Criminal Court, Supreme Court and Commercial Court Divisions received 93.2 per cent, 89.2 per cent & 86.9 per cent scores respectively mainly due to a strong perception about their impartiality, certainty, professionalism. The Land Division and Court of Appeal with 79.2 per cent and 72.2 per cent in overall assessment scores respectively were reportedly having challenges in all the six parameters.
The Chief Justice in his speech said such an assessment "... must take into consideration the circumstances under which the Judiciary operates if the results are to be in tandem with reality."
The Chief Justice highlighted some of the major institutions that the Judiciary is grappling with such as the limited capacity to adequately deliver judicial services owing to insufficient financial and human resources, poor working methods owing to lack of automation and poor attitudes, inappropriate court infrastructure, corruption (real and perceived), and generally low public confidence in the judicial system.
He said all these affect the institution's functionality,efficiency and effectiveness.
He commended CEPIL for the initiative. "The Judiciary Score Card Initiative Report for 2018 is expected to inform our continued efforts towards better delivery of the administration of justice.Through this tool, the Judiciary will be enabled to measure its level of accountability and responsiveness towards the people we serve," he said.
The Chief Justice said the Judiciary had adopted a number of reforms andmeasures to improve judicial performance.
The report also credited Hon. Lady Justice Stella Arach Amoko, Hon. Justice Augustine Nshimye, Hon. Justice Stephen Mubiru and HW Evarest Faith Palodi as some of the outstanding performers in the Judiciary.
In 2015, the Chief Justice launched the State of the Judiciary Report published by CEPIL which constituted an in-depth study of the state of the Judiciary in Uganda. The report, among others, clearly outlined the prevailing challenges that affect functionality and independent operations of the Judiciary.
Posted 29th, March 2018
