HW Esta Nambayo, Chief Registrar (Standing) during the training exercise
MBARARA: The quest to clean and update court registries has been rolled out to Mbarara High Court Circuit.
Described as the biggest Circuit in the country, Mbarara is one of the two High Court circuits that are benefiting in the first phase of the physical count of case files and reorganization of court registries.
The Chief Registrar, HW Esta Nambayo, held meetings with Judicial Officers and support staff at the court highlighting the existence of disparity between the existing record of the manual court case file and the automated record in the Case Administration System (CCAS).
She said the physical count of files will help ascertain the number of pending cases,number of pending cases before a Judicial Officer, number of backlogged cases.
"This information will help in the effective and efficient planning for case handling in the areas of resource allocation (human, funds, time)."
A data collection tool has been developed to record data in each case file.
The Mbarara Senior Resident Judge, Hon. Justice Dr Flavian Zeija, commended the exercise saying it will help ascertain the caseload for its Judicial Officers.
"Thephysical count will help us know the resources needed to dispose files athand."
As partof efforts to reconcile data on both the manual register and CCAS, it wasagreed that the old files be reassigned to the existing Judicial Officers.
The Chief Registrar commended these efforts adding that it was important to have a clear work plan for the court up to the end of the year with clear plans on backlog clearance.
One of the concerns raised was that clerks do not update the CCAS.
During the training of support staff who are going to capture data in the exercise,the CR said it was important for the clerks to know their role in courts."Part of your duty is to update CCAS and manual registers."
A three-member team from International Justice Mission (IJM) headed by Mr Byron Mwanje was at the court to help with the reorganization efforts.
His team will equally train the data managers at the station on the best data handling techniques.
Mbarara Resident Judge, Hon. Lady Justice Joyce Kavuma, expressed optimism at the exercise saying with the help of IJM, there is hope that the registries can be cleaned up.
As part of the clean-up efforts, the in charge of the registry was tasked to ensure that files are updated regularly.
It was also recommended that services of a dedicated data entry clerk be enlisted.
The Chief Registrar was accompanied by the Registrar Magistrate Affairs and Data Management, HW Susan Abinyo and Judiciary's Technical Advisor, Mr Andrew Khaukha.
Posted 4th, March 2019
