ICT IN THE UGANDA JUDICIARY

A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE AFRICANLII WORKSHOP

BY

JOSEPH SSINABULYAPROGRAMMER- UGANDA JUDICIARY

1 Apr 22, 2023

PRESENTATION OUTLINE1. 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 22, 2023

Apr 22, 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 components6. Co-ordination of ICT related procurement7. Accountability & management of ICT resourcesOur Ultimate goal is to have e-justice implemented in CoJ.

- 4 -

structure of the judiciAry ict UNIT

- 5 -

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.

- 7 -

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 headquarters3. 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

- 8 -

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.

- 9 -

Apr 22, 2023 - 10 -

THE JUDICIARY ICT SERVICE CATALOGUE

(coverage)

Apr 22, 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 Reports2. Compares with the CCAS

2. Summary Statistics System (SSS)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 12 Apr 22, 2023

3. Management Information System (MIS)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 13 Apr 22, 2023

4. Court Recording & Transcription System (DCRTS)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 14 Apr 22, 2023

5. Fixed Assets Management System (FAMS)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 15 Apr 22, 2023

6. Computer Inventory System (CIS)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 16 Apr 22, 2023

8. Service Desk (SD)

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 17 Apr 22, 2023

18 Apr 22, 2023

THE UGANDA JUDICIARY WEBSITE

19 Apr 22, 2023

THE Judiciary Intranet

20 Apr 22, 2023

THE ULII for Research

Others

ARUA HIGH COURT AND CM - WESTNILE (UGANDA) 21 Apr 22, 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 Division4. Joining the National Backbone infrastru/ E-Gov5. 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 22, 2023

128K Leased Line128K Leased Line1m

b to

I nte

rne t

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 Court512kbps

Anti Corruption Court

Constraints & Challenges1. Lack to top Judicial Administration

enthusiasm to embrace ICT2. 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

- 24 -

Constraints & Challenges (cont..)5. Inadequate awareness of the benefits of ICT6. Untimely reporting of ICT problems7. Insufficient funding for the maintenance of

computer systems and equipment8. 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]

- 25 -

AFRICANLII (UGANDA) 26 Apr 22, 2023

DISCUSSION