Judiciary Closes all Bail Deposit Bank Accounts, now deposits to be made in URA and Central Bank

Effective July 1 this year, all bank accounts operated by the Judiciary for purposes of bail deposits by litigants and other revenue collections will cease to be operational.

According to a communication from Mr Kagole Kivumbi, the Secretary to Judiciary/ Permanent Secretary says this resolution has been reached at due to the exorbitant bank charges that are associated with refund of bail cash to court litigants.

Mr Kagole explained that when a litigant applies to be refunded his/her bail money, he/she expects to receive the actual money that they deposited with the court and the same attracts withdraw charges that have been covered by the Judiciary, a scenario that he says has since become expensive to maintain.

“Effective July 1, 2017, all accounts in commercial banks operated by courts for purposes of revenue collections, bail and security deposits, will be closed and banking will be done through the Uganda Revenue Authority system for bail revenues,” reads in part Mr Kagole’s letter dated May 25th, 2017.

The communication has been directed to all Registrars, Deputy Registrars, Assistant Registrars, Chief Magistrates and Magistrate Grade Ones in charge of stations.

Further in the communication,management of the bail refunds will now be centrally handled through theaccounting officers as per the already issued guidelines.

The Secretary to Judiciary also in his communication directed that those who are far from the URA system may in the alternative deposit their security fees, bail money and non tax revenue like filing fees, fines and others on the Bank of Uganda account for the Registrar High Court.

Mr Kagole said the issues aforementioned had attracted the attention of the Auditor General which he raises in his 2015/6 financial report.

The New Accounts

Source: www.judiciary.go.ug