Actors in the justice delivery system in the country have been called upon to regularly use the Case-Tracking System (CTS) to expedited justice delivery.
Mr Enock Jengre, Rule of Law Specialist at Legal Resources Centre (LRC), who made the call, urged the justice sector institutions to see the CTS as a platform that would help in justice delivery by minimising challenges in terms of delays in justice delivery, hence the need to constantly use it in their work.
He made the call at a town hall meeting for various stakeholders at Tolon in the Northern Region to sensitise them on the CTS to ensure increased citizens oversight of the use of the CTS. During the week, the LRC will hold similar town hall meetings at Nanumba North, Savelugu, Gushegu, and Yendi Municipalities in the region.
The meetings formed part of the Justice Sector Support Activity (JSS) being implemented in 40 districts in seven regions by the LRC, a non-governmental organisation, with funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The JSS seeks to ensure that marginalised communities, through mobilisation and innovative public education programmes, are aware of and supported to track progress of the delivery of the CTS.
In 2018, Ghana launched the CTS to support key stakeholders in the justice delivery system to collect, collate and harmonise statistical data for effective justice delivery.
The CTS is to enable the key actors in the justice delivery system to electronically access and track the various stages of criminal cases from the point of arrest, investigations, prosecution, conviction, rehabilitation and release. The key actors in the justice delivery system include Ghana Police Service, Attorney General’s Office, Legal Aid Commission, Judicial Service, Economic and Organised Crimes Office and Ghana Prisons Service.
While the CTS seeks to ensure expedited justice delivery, it has been identified that in some districts, the CTS is being effectively utilised, and some other districts also have challenges in using the CTS effectively.
Some of the challenges include poor or no internet connectivity, device malfunctioning, and regular transfer of trained personnel, especially Police officers.
Mr Jengre encouraged the institutions to resort to the non-internet mode to use the CTS when they did not have internet and later transfer the files when the internet is functional and gave the assurance that the LRC was ready to resolve any challenges they might encounter using the CTS. He appealed to the Inspector General of Police to engage his officers to use the CTS to enhance justice delivery in the country.
Mr Samuel Fant Kombian, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Specialist at LRC spoke about the Community Service Bill, which talked about community sentencing to help reduce the overcrowding at the prisons by getting people, who committed minor offences, to be given some form of communal labour.
Mr Sylvanus Agordoh, National Early Warning Systems Manager at the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding – Ghana lauded the CTS, saying it would not only ensure improved data on justice delivery, but it would also help to improve on the human rights of suspects and prisoners.
