JUDICIARY Latest Features

Mr. Pius Bigirimana, Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Judiciary

May 22, 2020: President Yoweri Museveni has renewed, for another three years, the contract of Mr Pius Bigirimana as Permanent Secretary. Bigirimana is currently the PS/Secretary to the Judiciary.

The new contract is effective May 2020, following the expiry of his last contract at the end of April. The President also renewed for three years the contracts of three other Permanent Secretaries: Dorcas W. Okalany (Ministry of Lands), Rosette Byengoma (Ministry of Defence) and David O.O. Obong (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation).

Mr. Bigirimana, a career public servant was posted to the Judiciary on July 26, 2019, replacing Mr Kagole Expedito Kivumbi who was sent on forced leave.

Born seventh in a family of ten in Kisoro district, Bigirimana is a holder of two masters degrees:  MA Business Administration (ESAMI, Arusha, TZ -2010) and MA Arts in Development Administration majoring in Economic and Social Policy (Manchester, 1991). Prior to this, he attained a Post-graduate Diploma in Development Administration majoring in Economic and Social Policy (Manchester, 1988) and a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science and Public Administration (Mak, 1983).

His work life started in his home district of Kisoro as Assistant District Commissioner before being transferred to Mbale. He later served as an Assistant Secretary/PA to the Minister of Justice/Attorney General. He was promoted to the rank of Senior Assistant Secretary and was transferred to the Ministry of Local Government, then later elevated to Principal Assistant Secretary in the Office of the President. He also worked as Under Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Sports, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Public Service, and Ministry of Health.
Mr Bigirimana was first appointed Permanent Secretary in October 2008 and was posted to the Office of the Prime Minister where he served for five years. He served the subsequent six years as PS for the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, before being transferred to the Judiciary in July 2019.

The accomplishments

In just 10 months at the Judiciary, Mr Bigirimana already has a number of reforms to his name.

He started off by diffusing a longstanding disharmony between Judiciary administrators and Judicial Officers. By August 2020, Mr Bigirimana had successfully reconciled the two groups and convinced them to jointly meet to deliberate on work plans and resources as one Senior Management Team. 

At the start of July 2019, the government released Shs 13 billion out of the Shs 22.3 billion that was originally earmarked for the enhancement of salaries of all judicial officers. The Minister of Finance had indicated in his 2019/20 FY Budget Speech that the Shs 22.3 billion would cater for salary enhancements of both the Judicial officers and state attorneys. Mr Bigirimana was instrumental in ensuring that all the Shs2 2.3 billion came to the Judiciary - the balance came in a Supplementary Budget in April 2020.

Besides, he also streamlined the payment of statutory and other allowances by ensuring that all Judiciary staff received what was appropriated to them.

The implementation of Judiciary's five-year ICT Strategy was at snail-speed at the time Mr Bigirimana joined the Judiciary. The process to secure a contractor for the Electronic Court Case Management Information System (ECCMIS) - which is expected to digitize processes and improve the conduct of court business - had suffered major setbacks and delayed for at least three years. Mr Bigirimana spearheaded the negotiations and quickly secured Solicitor General clearance for the contract signing with Synergy International Systems. Piloting ECCMIS in 19 selected courts, which was scheduled for May 2020, has only been delayed by the COVID-19 lock down.

The project for the construction of permanent homes for both the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal had delayed for various reasons, since 1999. Mr Bigirimana initiated the process of advertisement and contracting of Seyani Brothers - who emerged the successful bidder to construct the nine storey twin buildings at the Judiciary headquarters in Kampala. Construction of the Shs63.9 billion-project kicked off in December 2019 and is expected to be completed in 24 months.

Just like he did for the Gender Ministry, Mr Bigirimana introduced the Friday evening weekly Health Run at the Judiciary. The physical fitness campaign was started on August 6, 2019 and has since attracted a number of participants, including the Deputy Chief Justice, the Principal Judge, judges, top administrators and other judicial officers, among others.

The PS/SJ has initiated negotiations with the Eastern and Southern African Management Institute (ESAMI), to conduct training on the use of the Performance Enhancement Tool. The tool is an integrated performance management system designed to assess and improve performance at both institutional and individual level.                     

Mr Bigirimana's other priority areas include securing resources to purchase vehicles for more judicial officers, especially to improve land justice, as well as support institutional efforts to have more recruitments in the judicial ranks.

He is also looking at making the budgeting and planning of the Judiciary more structured to ensure transparency in the management of funds for each station and court.

At the Gender Ministry, Mr Bigirimana is partly remembered for being the brainchild of the Youth Livelihood Programme that introduced a new dimension to addressing the challenge of youth unemployment through provision of direct capital, skills and capacity development in entrepreneurship. At least 20,159 youth groups with 241,799 members were financed during his time at the Ministry.

In 2015, when President Museveni promised to start a special fund for women during the International Women's Day, Bigirimana wasted no time to actualize the pledge. He initiated the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme, which has helped women access credit and entrepreneurial skills to initiate or grow enterprises of their choice. At least 9,660 women groups received UWEP funding, directly benefiting a total of 120,873 women by July 2019.

This was also behind the Social Assistance Grants for Empowerment, a programme that aided elderly persons above 65 years access a monthly grant of Shs 25,000, each - at least 201,168 elderly persons were enrolled on the scheme during his time at the Gender.

Mr Bigirimana also launched the Green Jobs Programme, an initiative through which the Songhai Model Farm at Kampiringisa National Rehabilitation Centre, the National Apprenticeship Framework and the Commencement of the Graduate Volunteer Scheme were establishment.

He is also the brain behind the Uganda Child Helpline-116, a toll-free facility at the Gender Ministry through which the public reported cases of child abuse. Over 6,500 cases were registered through the facility in its first 12 months. Mr Bigirimana was also instrumental in getting the Industrial Court back to its feet after over 10 years in abeyance, thereby aiding the adjudication of many labour disputes.

He also spearheaded the Computerization of Externalization of Labour to streamline the sector and strengthen the monitoring of Ugandans working abroad. Key reforms in this regard included the provision of a mobile telephone for workers deployed abroad as a permanent line of communication for migrant workers.

At the International Labour Organization, Mr Bigirimana ensured that Uganda played a leading role including securing the country a seat on ILO's Governing Body. He was appointed as the Chief Negotiator for Africa at ILO's Standard Setting Committee on Ending Violence at Work. The results were delivered at the recent International labour conference with the adoption of a Convention on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work.

Working at OPM

As PS at the Office of the Prime Minister, Mr Bigirimana is remembered for having established a Government-Wide Monitoring System aimed at providing semi-annual and annual reports to Cabinet on Government of Uganda's sector performance and spending.

• Established a Government-Wide Monitoring System aimed at providing semi-annual and annual reports to Cabinet on Government of Uganda's sector performance and spending.
• Supported the Institutionalization and Management of National Evaluations in which a Government Evaluation Facility was established.
• Aligned the Joint Budget Support Operation of the Development Partners with the Government of Uganda's practices and systems.
• Spearheaded the design of the Sub-county level public meetings (Baraza) to oversee government service delivery.
• Coordinated and drafted the National Policy on Public Sector Monitoring and Evaluation which was approved by Cabinet.
• Provided technical leadership in the design, management, quality assurance, dissemination and utilization of the National Evaluation of Uganda's implementation of the Paris Declaration Principles.
• Designed and implemented the Peace Recovery Programmes in Northern Uganda. The Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF II) was successfully rated by the World Bank as one of the best projects with a 99 percent implementation and accountability rating.
• Negotiated a European Union Grant Project for funding Agricultural Livelihoods Recovery Programmes and Karamoja Livelihoods Programmes.
• Designed and implemented the Karamoja Integrated Development Programme with components meant to address the issues of food security, provision and promotion of water investments, community empowerments and moderate accommodation.
• Coordinated the development of capacities for prevention, preparedness and response to Natural and Human induced disasters and refugees. In 2008-2013, coordinated and provided public relations, covering events, formulated and communicated policies on Information and National Guidance.
• Chaired and led the development of Luwero/Rwenzori Development Programme. 

Between 2006 and 2008 while working with the Ministry of Health, he spearheaded the preparation of an acceptable Long-Term Institutional Arrangement for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria Programmes and other Development Assistance to the Health Sector.

In 2005-2006, while at the Ministry of Public Service, he fronted completion and installation of the Local Area Network (LAN) to enable staff within the ministry open e-mail addresses.

As an author, he is the writer of an auto-biographical narrative, 'The Abundance Mentality', which relates a near-death experience when a helicopter in which he was travelling with the late Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. Prof. Apollo Nsibambi, plunged more than 1,000 feet onto the ground.