System to cut costs, remove corruption in judiciary

By ZEDAIAH KANAU
THE Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS) will reduce operational costs and eliminate corruption within the judiciary, Deputy Chief Justice Ambeng Kandakasi says. “Paper, ink, printers, institutional operational costs are some of the savings with IECMS,” he said. “Then, of course, the registry staff have all the files and all the associated items that go with it like, paper clips, ink and binders, to name a few.  “File movement is a bit intensive in the current system. “When a file is lost, there is a requirement for supplementary or replacement files to be printed and that is also a cost factor.  “As long as we have the database and back-up that takes care of everything.” Justice Kandakasi said this on Friday at a hands-on training programme for judges and their associates for the use and operation of the IECMS. “The IECMS will also have an inbuilt system to deal with duplicate files. It will stop corrupt practices between lawyers and registry staff,” he said. Kandakasi said some lawyers were too friendly with registry staff and were getting preferential treatment.
“Some even have the ability to get files conveniently lost or misplaced, or certain documents removed,” he said.
Justice Kandakasi said this resulted in backlogs and other problems. “Whereas in the (new) system, you will not get accepted unless authorised,” he said.  “So let us say once a case gets assigned to Justice (Collin) Makail, the only person authorised to get into that place is the judge and nobody else. “If someone somehow gets into it, the footprint of that entry will be there.  “That is the beauty of the system that is piloted now.” He said the system would allow a turnaround time of 24 hours for all files and if nothing was done within that time frame, a report would be sent to the registrar.