Court bailiffs have been urged to uphold professional values when auctioning property following court rulings in order to ensure fair and timely justice. Johnston Busingye, the minister for justice, made the remarks last week during a meeting with professional court bailiffs that discussed the execution of court verdicts. He challenged bailiffs to avoid practices that erode public trust in the justice sector. “Avoid corruption, personal interest, sentimentalism and never be partial when carrying out auctions. We need truth and fairness from you during execution of court rulings,” Busingye, who is also the Attorney-General, told the bailiffs. “There are some who execute supposed rulings on cases that were never tried. There is a need for you to analyse and see if the case has ever been tried to ensure you are fair. For instance, there are cases where people seem to execute rulings said to be taken by Gacaca courts, but when you investigate the case, you find that it had never been tried anywhere in the country.” Malpractices said to be committed by some professional court bailiffs include executing verdicts of unreal cases or cases that have not yet been concluded and bailiffs depositing money from auctions into their own bank accounts instead of courts. Other cases cited include bailiffs not reporting executed verdicts, lack of known workplace as provided by the law, holding auctions on a day differ from the one advertised, poor documentation and archiving of auctioning minutes, selling the property at a price that is lower that its real value and some bailiffs keeping the balance of the auction proceeds instead of giving it to the one whose property was auctioned. Vedaste Habimana, the president of the Association of Professional Court Bailiffs, said some measures had been taken to curb the malpractices undermining the profession. “We have a disciplinary committee within the association that is analysing some malpractices we identified either ourselves as the association or brought to us by the public. Those who will be found guilty will be punished either at professional level or taken to a court of law basing on the fault committed,” he said. Jean Paul Mwitende, a professional bailiff based in Nyarugenge District, said some institutions do not facilitate them to get information when they want to verify whether a case was tried or get in-depth information about the property to be auctioned. Alexis Kagame Kimonyo, another professional bailiff from Nyarugenge, said court delays pose problems for them. “Sometimes the money we deposit in the court’s bank account can spent several weeks there whereas the law provides for a maximum period of two weeks, after which it is supposed to be given to the winner. We are always blamed for such delays,” Kimonyo said. The Association of Professional Court Bailiffs boasts more than 217 members.
