ICT IN THE UGANDA JUDICIARY

A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE

AFRICANLII WORKSHOP

BY

JOSEPH SSINABULYA

PROGRAMMER- UGANDA JUDICIARY

1 Apr 19, 2023

PRESENTATION OUTLINEPRESENTATION OUTLINE

1. Introduction to ICT in the Judiciary

2. Functions of ICT in the Judiciary

3. Structure of the ICT Section

4. Management of ICT in the Judiciary

5. Judiciary ICT Service Catalogue

6. Judiciary ICT Infrastructure

7. Constraints and Challenges

8. ConclusionARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 2 Apr 19, 2023

Apr 19, 2023 - 3 -

INTRODUCTION

i. Goal of application of ICT in Legal Profession• To Provide the legal profession, judicial fraternity with up to

date computerized technology that renders speedy justice with better legal outputs through a range of ICT services.

ii. ICT Service Catalogue – Is a database or structured document with information about all live ICT Services, including those available for deployment and is available to users so as to support the application of ICT in the delivery of Justice.

functions of ict in the judiciary

1. Alignment of ICT with the Judiciary business requirements

2. Delivery of the right ICT services to meet the Judiciary requirements;

3. Guiding Users on the effective utilization of ICT and awareness of the risks and responsibilities involved;

4. To ensure continued availability of ICT services with minimal disruption

5. Safeguarding information and ICT components

6. Co-ordination of ICT related procurement

7. Accountability & management of ICT resources

Our Ultimate goal is to have e-justice implemented in CoJ.

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structure of the judiciAry ict UNIT

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SENIOR ICT TRAINER (1)

PROPOSED ICT DEPARTMENT STAFFING STRUCTURE Tech. Implementation Committee

COMMISSIONER ICT (1)

ASS. COMMISSIONER ICT (1)

PRINCIPAL IM OFFICER (1)

PRINCIPAL IT OFFICER

PRINCIPAL COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER (1)

SIMO (1)

SITO

SENIOR COM. OFF (1)

INTRANET OFFICER

WEB

MASTER

HELP DESK

STASTICIAN (1)

IMO (1)

ICT TRAINING OFFICER

SENIOR IT MAINTENANCE

OFFICER (1)

ASS. ICT TRAINING OFFICERS

(REGIONAL 6)

ASS. IMO(REGIONAL 6)

ASS. HELP DESK

(REGIONAL 6)

ASS. STASTICIAN (1)

PROGRAMMER

SADAPPL & DATABASES

SAD SECURITY & DR

SADNETWORKS

SYSTEMSANALYST (1)

SADS (REGIONAL)

IT MAINT. OFFICER (1)

COMM. OFFICER (1)

DECS

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

DRIVERS (1)

SECRETARY

OFFICE ASSISTANT

ASS. SADS (REGIONAL) (6)

DECS (6)

ASS. PROG (1)

ASS. SAD N/W (1)

ASS. SAD

SECURITY (1)

ASS. SYS.

ANALYSIS (1)

ASS. COMMOFFICER (1)

ASS.SAD APPL & DBs (1)

ASS.IT MAINT.OFFICER (1)

Management of ICT in the Judiciary

1. Strategic Management (Top level planning and

approvals of ICT implementations)

• ICT Technology Committee/ Law Reporting Committee: Overall

responsibility of developing, implementing and reviewing the ICT Strategy,

membership:-

Justices/Judges, Chief Registrar, Secretary to the Judiciary, All Registrars,

D/Regs , All Administrative Heads, C/M’s of major Magistrates Courts

• Secretary to the Judiciary: Top-level provision of approvals and funding for

all ICT.

• Registrar of Planning & Development: Top-Level planning and

coordination of the ICT Donor supported projects (DANIDA, JLOS, etc.).

2. Operational Mgt: Is by the PITO, SITO, Programmer and other SADs - 6 -

The Need for CASE INFORMATION

1. Efficient Management, Budgeting and Resource Allocation: Statistics aid management in planning, decision making and resource allocation.

2. An aid to Monitoring, Control and Evaluation: By providing information about performance and the extent of deviations from planned levels of performance.

3. Research and scholarly purposes: For the provision of a framework for research on operations of the Judiciary-ULII.

4. Judiciary Physical & Financial Performance;

5. Justification of performance for Donor Financing

6. Address Public Inquiries.

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Consumers of the Information

1. Court Stations which generate the information

First –line consumers planning for case disposal, justification of increase in operational

funds, performance monitoring, reporting to higher levels2. Regional Circuits

Second‐line consumers Planning for case disposal at a regional level, performance

monitoring of the stations, reporting to headquarters

3. Head Office (High Court – Kampala) and Data Center Third‐line consumers of the information For planning for case disposal at a national level, performance

monitoring of the stations, reporting to higher levels Central Repository of all Judiciary Information

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Consumers of the Information

6. Registry of Planning & Development Developing realistic plans

7. The Justice, law and order sector To justify funds releases and other resources.

8. Cabinet (through the Uganda bureau of Statistics)6. The eventual consumer of information is the Government

7. Judiciary information is a component of the entire Government statistics

9. The Public6. Judiciary is accountable to the public because it operates using tax

payers money.

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Apr 19, 2023 - 10 -

THE JUDICIARY ICT SERVICE CATALOGUE

(coverage)

Apr 19, 2023 Knowledge Sharing - 11 -

1. Court Case Administration System (CCAS)

Use:

CCAS Reports e.g:

• Case Statistics per Judicial Officer (completed, pending)

• Case maintenance information

• Etc

Use:

1. Generation of Quick Summary Statistics Reports

2. Compares with the CCAS

2. Summary Statistics System (SSS)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 12 Apr 19, 2023

3. Management Information System (MIS)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 13 Apr 19, 2023

4. Court Recording & Transcription System (DCRTS)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 14 Apr 19, 2023

5. Fixed Assets Management System (FAMS)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 15 Apr 19, 2023

6. Computer Inventory System (CIS)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 16 Apr 19, 2023

8. Service Desk (SD)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 17 Apr 19, 2023

18 Apr 19, 2023

THE UGANDA JUDICIARY WEBSITE

19 Apr 19, 2023

THE Judiciary Intranet

20 Apr 19, 2023

THE ULII for Research

Others

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 21 Apr 19, 2023

1.Email System (Ms Exchange Server)

2.Intranet (MoSS),TMG & Internet service

3.Other Initiatives; ICT Strategy & Policy

4.Judiciary Training Mgt System

5.IFMS and IPPS

6.BCDR Strategy and Operational DR site

7. Future; Video Conferencing & CCTV

Current Major ICT Initiatives

1. Re‐engineering the Court Case Administration System (CCAS); to cater for enhanced requirements

2. Institution of an ICT Model Court/ Disaster Recovery Centre

3. Recruitment of more staff in the ICT Division

4. Joining the National Backbone infrastru/ E-Gov

5. Legal Assistance Kiosks; To assist litigants with information on court procedures & processes

6. Equipping Upcountry Courts with ICT Equip’t- 22 -

The Judiciary LAN/WAN Infrastructure

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 23 Apr 19, 2023

128K Leased Line128K Leased Line1m

b to

Inte

rnet

MTN Network

192.168.0.0/24

ISA 2004 FIREWALL

Mengo Court of Appeal

ServersPrinters

High Court Network Diagram

Database

Cisco 1760

Cisco 3700

Registry of Planning & Development (Danida)

128K Leased Line

Masaka

Jinja

128K Leased Line 128K Leased Line

Judicial Studies Institute (JSI)

128K Leased Line

- Registrar – Palnning and Development,- Senior Economist

- Registrar – Research and training

128K Leased Line

Crusader

256K Leased Line

CommercialCourt

128K Leased Line

128K Leased Line

Gulu

Lira

128K Leased Line

Arua

Proposed Link

Existing Link

XXX

XXX

512kbps

Supreme Court

512kbps

Anti Corruption Court

Constraints & Challenges

1. Lack to top Judicial Administration enthusiasm to embrace ICT

2. Untimely (Region Submission Status)/ wrong submission of statistical returns (Region Sample Data)

3. Reluctance in supervision/ usage of the Information Systems and/or updating of information in the computer systems

4. Resistance to Change towards the use of ICT in the Judiciary

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Constraints & Challenges (cont..)

5. Inadequate awareness of the benefits of ICT

6. Untimely reporting of ICT problems

7. Insufficient funding for the maintenance of computer systems and equipment

8. Insufficient Staffing ICT Technical, Dedicated Data Entry Clerks, Court Reporters and

Transcribers

9. Insufficient provision of facilitation for training [both for Technical staff & end Users]

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AFRICANLII (UGANDA) 26 Apr 19, 2023

DISCUSSION