Judiciary has directed disciplinary action against two magistrates and five support staff following the recent investigation by the institution’s anti-corruption task force.
The accused staff whose names withheld include; two magistrates, two office attendants, two court clerks and process servers attached to Wakiso, Goma, City Hall, Mukono and Nabweru.
The implicated staff are among those who appeared in last year’s media reports on corruption tendencies at selected courts arising from investigative stories conducted by local media outlets.
The Chief Justice, Bart Katurebe said that the Judiciary reviewed a report from a Taskforce that was set up to investigate claims from the media about corruption in the sector and directed the Chief Registrar to charge the two magistrates 9 and refer them to the Judiciary Disciplinary Committee, and the Permanent Secretary to interdict the five support staff and take disciplinary action in a accordance with the Public Service Standing Orders.
“It is the disciplinary processes which will determine whether to forward the implicated officers to the Judicial Service commission and the Public service commission,” said the Chief Justice, Bart Katureebe.
Back in July 2019, The New Vision and the Democratic Governance Facility carried out an investigation on corruption in courts and exposed various officials in their a piece ‘EXPOSED: STINKING BRIBERY IN THE COURTS’.
It was from this exposé that the Judiciary created a Taskforce back in August 2019 to handle the claims and investigate the accusations. Dr Immaculate Busingye, a high court Judge, chaired the nine-member Taskforce. It included High court judges Vincent Emmy Mugabe, Susan Abinyo, Deputy registrar Rosemary Bareebe, Assistant Registrar Patrick Barugahare, Principal Communications officer Solomon Muyita and Advocate Eva Kentaro Mugerwa.
“This taskforce interfaced with the media, reviewed material, interviewed implicated individuals and conducted field visits in the process of executing this mandate,” the report read.
