The Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Johnston Busingye has urged court bailiffs to avoid backlogs in court cases won by the Government warning that failure to adhere to the advice will attract punitive action.
Busingye made the request yesterday during discussions with the second cohort of court bailiffs tasked to finalize court cases won by the Government and seek measures to recover unsettled debts.
The second cohort of 37 court bailiffs has been assigned to finalize 280 court cases involving Rwf3, 010, 711, 593 to be recovered. They are taking over from the first batch comprised of 33 bailiffs who were tasked to handle 120 court cases but finalized only 44 cases recovering Rwf 238, 580, 499.
Busingye explained that 80 cases have not been handled due to failure to find information and backlogging issues.
He revealed that more efforts have been earmarked to establish a revised system that will help bailiffsaccess information.
“We have compiled information on people owing Government. We have partnered with Rwanda Land Management and Use Authority, RSSB, National ID Agency and Rwanda Revenue Authority to access information. This will be the foundation for court bailiffs to carry out their activities smoothly. Besides, we have delegated a permanent debt recovery team from the ministry,” he said.
“We want court bailiffs to help us in the process of recovering all debts owed to the Government from won court cases,” he said.
Musoni Goldflie, one of the court bailiffs explained that their job will be easier given that an information pool has been established.
“We would find it difficult to get deeper information for people owing debts to the Government. I am optimistic that we shall recover the debts so long as the problem has been fixed,” he said.
As of today, the Government is owed compensation from 2,416 people that lost court cases.
Only 1,958 of them can be traced.
