The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has held a coordination meeting with the Criminal Investigation Directorate to pave way for managing investigations and prosecution of major cases.
While giving his remarks during the meeting at Sheraton Hotel Kampala on Wednesday, the Deputy DPP (Prosecutions and International Affairs) Mr Odumbi James Owere noted that the purpose of such meetings helps to improve communication, coordination and cooperation that foster perfect deliverance of criminal justice in time.
In her remarks, the Director of Public Prosecutions Jane Frances Abodo said, “The ODPP and CID have a common objective of ensuring effective administration of criminal justice, hence the need to cooperate and coordinate in handling criminal matters. The ODPP-CID Meetings are important for forecasting crimes so that both CID and ODPP can be prepared for them.”
She added that the meeting is timely considering that a number of high profile cases are being handled by both institutions and it will help participants learn the pertinent roles played by each stakeholder and management of such cases.
She noted that the two offices share a common objective of ensuring the effective administration of criminal justice in the county therefore they need to cooporate and coordinate in handling criminal cases and avoid throwing cases.
The Director CID AIGP, Tom Magambo acknowledged that such meetings have paid off since the two offices are now working more closely.
“We are working jointly and committed to auditing our performance and reflecting on the challenges that we have so that we serve our people. When we keep working together, we shall fight cynicism and help society. We are committed to having prosecution-led investigations.”
During the meeting, the Prosecution-Guided Investigations Guidelines were validated.
Prosecution-Guided Investigations are criminal investigations where the Prosecutor gets involved at the early stage of the investigations, with the intention to guide the process from the time the crime is reported until the investigations are concluded.
The Guidelines have been developed to streamline the working relationship of Investigators and Prosecutors while investigating cases with the ultimate aim of ensuring effective cooperation, collaboration and communication for successful investigations and prosecution of criminal cases.
In addition, the Guidelines will be used in the investigation of all cases, but majorly complex cases such as terrorism, corruption, money laundering and Trafficking in Persons.
Meanwhile, the two departments meet at a time when there is a lot of unanswered question regarding the quality of investigation exhibited by Police detectives.
It must be recalled that in last year’s annual report for the Judiciary, Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo mentioned that one of the reasons why the judiciary is struggling with case backlogs especially the major cases is due to poor investigation by Police detectives.
It was from this point that Justice Dollo asked police leadership to enhance more pieces of training to equip Police detectives with new skills for investigating major cases like terrorism, human trafficking and assassinations.
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