Judiciary budget seen dropping

TANGANYIKA Law Society (TLS) is recommending steady increase in judiciary budget as a measure that will help fast track backlog of pending cases in courts.

TLS newly elected President Adv. Fatuma Karume expressed concern here that the budget allocated to the state pillar is a reason behind continued existence of unresolved numbers of cases in the country's courts.

Minister for Constitution and Legal Affairs Prof Palamagamba Kabudi tabled the ministry's 54bn/- salary estimates for the financial year 2018/19 in the National Assembly on Wednesday. He said that the court has managed to settle a total of 141,107 cases as of March this year.

"The budget has been consistently been falling. Last financial year the government approved 56.5bn/- budget for judiciary salary," she said adding “it's unfortunate that the money had dropped amid the appointment of 12 more judges.”.

Although, TLS agreed with an increased budget for development project from 18bn/-to over 36bn/-, the body said still 80 percent of the budget is expected from donors.

"We are seeing the court infrastructures, most of them are inhabitable. We work there we see the structures and appliances ... it’s bad, if I may say," she told a press conference in Dodoma.

Details released by the parliamentary committee on Constitution and Legal affairs and explained by TLS indicate that the budget allocation to the judiciary Fund has been falling since 2012.

Ms Karume said in 2012/13 the judiciary requested 102bn/- but received only 86.7bn/- instead.

In 2013/14 the cash received was 109bn/- out of 160bn/- , which was approved by the Parliament. In 2014/15 the judiciary received only 64bn/- out of 164bn/-, which was approved in the House.