Justice sector begins week-long anti-graft campaign

There is need for stronger collaboration with members of the public to uproot graft in courts, Deputy Chief Justice Sylvie Zainabu Kayitesi has said. Opening a weeklong anti-corruption campaign in Kigali, yesterday, Justice Kayitesi commended the achievements registered since 2005, saying there is steady decline in reported corruption cases although much more was needed on information sharing. The campaign, which will end on February 19, will focus on the highly affected sectors like justice and police.During the campaign, under the theme, “Fight Corruption, build an injustice-free Rwanda,” at least 56 corruption cases, both civil and criminal, will be handled. Officials from the Supreme Court confirmed that about 32 judiciary staff were implicated in acts of graft since 2005, of which 13 were judges and 19 registrars. Kayitesi said five judiciary personnel were last year implicated in corruption cases and these were suspended from duties and punished accordingly. “This is the sixth annual campaign on corruption in the judiciary. A number of programmes mainly on sensitisation on corruption in courts, are scheduled but, most importantly, all graft-related cases before courts should be concluded before the end of the week,” she said. Kayitesi cited continuous lack of sufficient information on bribery in the sector, especially those soliciting or offering bribe to have their cases expedited or resolved illegally, among the challenges. “We call upon everybody to report these kinds of behavior to gather enough information and evidence, it is crucial to play our role in the fight against corruption,” Kayitesi said. “We have now established a committee in charge of corruption at every court level on top of easing ways how corruption is reported and these measures have produced tangible results, though we cannot say the cases are that worrying,” she added. Citizenry perception Quoting the recent Transparency International Rwanda 2015 country bribery index, Kayitesi said citizens’ perception and trust in courts professionalism is good since only 7 per cent of the sampled population cited prevalence of corruption in courts. In the past, the judiciary has raised concerns on open avenues of corruptions in courts, mostly at the intermediate and primary courts levels, because trial sittings are presided over by one judge unlike three judges at the high court and supreme court. But this, Kayitesi, said cannot qualify the problem as it is reported because, so far, 84.5 per cent and 82.7 per cent of surveyed population on corruption in courts hailed the independence of lower level courts in the country than high ranking courts. Reacting on the efficiency of courts in providing legal services, Inspector General of the Supreme Court, Francois Regis Rukundakuvuga, said courts at the ordinary levels rank highly in performance, adding that challenges are only reported at higher levels mainly due to case backlog. “The efficiency has improved with the introduction of online services because 65 per cent of the submitted cases are done online and our research findings show that 82 per cent of public members believe in the independence of courts,” he added. The sixth bribery index indicates a decrease from 67 per cent of corruption in 2011 to 51 per cent today, of which local government and Police scored the worst with 4.7 per cent and 6.3 per cent, respectively, while the private sector stood at 1.8 per cent. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Justice sector begins week-long anti-graft campaign