Minister Matia Kasaija on Monday appeared before the Committee to present the 3.48 trillion additional budget that has caused an increase of the proposed National Budget for the coming financial year 2021/2022 from 41.29 trillion initially presented by the Minister last week to 44.77 trillion.
Parliament’s Budget Committee has questioned the
Minister of Finance Matia Kasaija on the low funding to the Judiciary
despite a recent directive by President Yoweri Museveni for a 800
billion Shilling budget allocation.
Kasaija on Monday appeared before the Committee to present the 3.48 trillion additional budget that has caused an increase of the proposed National Budget for the coming financial year 2021/2022 from 41.29 trillion initially presented by the Minister last week to 44.77 trillion.
Amos Lugoloobi, the Budget Committee Chairperson tasked
the Minister to explain why he had undermined the President’s directive to
provide more funding to the Judiciary.
He said that his committee together with that of Legal
and Parliamentary Affairs recently held a meeting with the Chief Justice
Alfonse Owiny-Dollo and other top managers in the Judiciary in which they noted
a letter from President Yoweri Museveni directing the Minister of Finance to
increase the institution’s budget to 800 billion Shillings.
The proposed budget for the Judiciary for the coming
financial year 2021/2022 recently stood at 221.1 billion Shillings and this has
now gone up to 373.1 billion, according to the additional budget presented by
the Minister to the Budget Committee.
The additional budget details indicate that an additional 152
billion Shillings has been allocated to the Judiciary.
Lugoloobi says that the 152 billion Shillings increment to the
Judiciary is way below the expected additional funding of 600 billion to the
institution. He wondered whether Minister Kasaija was not in contravention with
the President’s directive.
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He added that his committee has received full
justification why the Judiciary should be adequately funded. Lugoloobi said
that the Judiciary is currently operating at only a quarter of its intended capacity
due to the low funding yet it is expected to deliver justice in the country.
He said that hearing of several election petitions
recently filed after the 2021 general election are yet to be heard due to lack
of funding. The Institution received over 100 election petitions to be heard by
the High Court and any appeals would be determined by the Court of Appeal.
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In response, Minister Kasaija said that in his
Saturday meeting with President Museveni, he directed him to do what is
feasible according to the available resources. This prompted Lugoloobi to direct
that the Minister avails the Committee with minutes of his meeting with the
President in regard to Judiciary funding.
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Kenneth Mugambe, the Director Budget in the Ministry
of Finance said that the required budget by the Judiciary can be addressed in
the next 3 financial years.
Patrick Isiagi, the Budget Committee Vice Chairperson
said that he was happy that the Finance Minister was trying to strengthen the
Judiciary but questioned its efforts towards the Directorate of Public
Prosecution (DPP).
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On 7th February, Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo
interfaced with President Museveni at State House, Entebbe and media reports
indicated that their discussion was about the inadequate funding to the
JudiciaryUganda Radio Network-URN has also learnt that the Chief Justice has
recently met with Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and Parliament Committee Chairpersons
on the same matter.
At different occasions, the Chief Justice has appealed
to government to provide adequate funding to the Judiciary to facilitate
recruitment of more judicial officers to deal with case backlog. By December
2020, 150,654 cases were still stuck in various courts.
