Anti Corruption Coalition Uganda

Formation

• Established in late 2008 in after a consultation between the Principal Judge and the Chief Justice.

• The Anti Corruption Court is a division of High Court created try high profile corruption and related offenses.

• The establishment of the court was as a result of public demand for a specialized court. It was considered to be the last institutional mechanism following the establishment of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions and Police anti -corruption specialized units.

• In 2009, a practice directive was issued by the Chief Justice by way of Legal Notice No.9 to formally operationalize the Anti-Corruption Court Division.

• The objective of this court is to expeditiously and efficiently adjudicate corruption related cases

Statistics

• Between 2009 and 2011, the AC court had 232 convictions and 127 pending.

• Out of the cases AC court handled in 2010/2011, over 68% were in the category of embezzlement and procurement alone.

• On average a trial in the AC court lasts between 2 weeks to 6 months.

• Average period on disposal of corruption cases is 5 months

• Overall 2010/2011 national budget allocation for the JLOS is UGX 550 billion which is 4% of the national budget.

• UGX 63.366billion is projected as institutional support to Judiciary alone which is 11%of the overall budget allocation

Key milestones

• Of the1175 corruption related appeals, revisions and criminal cases concluded by the AC court, UGX 4.5 billion shillings has been ordered for recovery .

• Expeditious disposal of corruption cases by the AC court is attributed to the specialized nature of the court.

• Anti-Corruption Division Court has rolled out sessions for circuit hearings upcountry areas such as Masindi and Lira, thus reducing the number of transferred cases to the division

• Accurate capturing of the proceedings from the court attributed to digital recording mechanism of trials.

• Enhanced coordination and cooperation between the court and prosecution agencies

Challenges

• Currently, the court is understaffed and has only 2 judges, 3 magistrates and 1 registrar whereas the ideal bench should have 10 judicial officers.

• The premises within which the court resides are not only limited in space and do not have proper court arrangement as well secure arrangements for the personnel who most of the time handle sensitive cases.

• Limited transport to facilitate circuit sittings up country. Currently AC court has only 2 old vehicles with an arrangement to procure 2 others which number is still below the required 7 vehicles.

• There is still a backlog of 198 cases as of November 2011

A summary of cases handled by the Anti-Corruption Divisions from December 2008 to Sept2011