By Stephen Kalema
Chief Justice Bart Katureebe has promised all government institutions that the Judiciary is willing to cooperate with them mutually in order to deliver better services without legal hardships
“Judiciary is prepared to make use of productive partnerships which will help us the judges and even you to keep up to date with new practices, new laws among many other benefits and am very sure a lot can be achieved from strategic partnerships,” said Katureebe.
He was speaking at Judiciary headquarters in Kampala while receiving the Commissioner General’s Award for the Best Strategic Partner – (Ministries, Departments and Agencies category) from the Ag Commissioner General Uganda Revenue Authority Patrick Mukiibi.
According to Katureebe, partnerships is one of the interests that Judiciary pass through to deliver services to Ugandans.
“We are willing to partner with everyone and these partnerships should not be misunderstood for other personal interests,” he added
Katureebe noted that Judiciary’s frontline effort is to deliver judicial services to the people of Uganda without any impartiality.
URA is one of the authorities which have benefited from the partnership with the Judiciary. According to Katureebe the Judicial Training Institute (JTI) was able to conduct a number of specialized training sessions for the judicial officers with selected URA staff on new tax laws and policies.
Mukiibi said because of this partnership, URA staff members have exercised absolute impartiality while handling tax related cases, shown commitment to ensure that tax laws are brought to life and we are committed to ensure that the Judiciary’s capacity is built regularly through trainings on tax laws and tax policies.
“Through nine Annual Judges Conferences, the partnership between URA and the Judiciary was sealed and the judiciary has been able to advise URA on how to improve revenue collection within the confines of the law. This has had a massive impact on revenue collection efficiency,” he said.
Katureebe also called on URA to double their efforts to mobilize partnership with banks to equip courts of law with Point of Sale (POS) Visa Machines to facilitate faster collection of court fines, fees and bail deposits, a move that will further boost revenue collection.
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