The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is set to recruit 2,868 non-judicial staff to help judicial officers in settling legal cases, the Judiciary announced yesterday.
While addressing a press conference in Kampala, the Permanent Secretary of Judiciary, Mr Pius Bigirimana, said the exercise follows a Cabinet endorsement of the recruitment.
“Recently, Cabinet approved the structure of the non-judicial staff. We shall be recruiting them as we receive funds in the mid-term,” Mr Bigirimana said.
The categories of non-judicial staff to be recruited include court clerks, process servers, drivers, statisticians, IT staff, records officers, communication officers, and internal auditors, among others.
Previously, the non-judicial staff were recruited by the Public Service Commission but this reportedly made it difficult for Judiciary’s top management to discipline the errant non-judicial staff.
But with the enactment of the Administration of the Judiciary Act, 2020, the Judicial Service Commission was given the power to recruit and discipline non-judicial staff.
“Even today (yesterday), we were carrying out the recruitment of Judiciary drivers, process servers who were previously recruited by the Public Service Commission. So we shall continue recruiting them as and when the Judiciary declares to us the vacant positions,”Dr Nassali said.
Mr Bigirimana also said the construction of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal buildings is almost complete.
He said the construction of the Supreme Court building is at 92 percent complete while that of the Court of Appeal is 85 percent.
He added that they hope to enter the seven-storey buildings by the end of the year.
The buildings contain modern courtrooms, chambers for the Justices and registrars, boardrooms, a gym, a restaurant, and two basement floor parking lots for 226 vehicles among others.
Once complete, the government is expected to save Shs9.9b which it has been spending on renting facilities for the courts.
Mr Bigirimana said the construction of Mukono High Court, and the Butambala and Mayunge Chief Magistrate courts have been completed.
