The LRC and other Anti-Corruption Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Ghana on Thursday 18th July 2019 held a meeting with Her Ladyship the Chief Justice of Ghana, Justice Sophia Akuffo and other Superior Court Justices. The meeting which took place at the Conference Room of the Judicial Service Administration Block was aimed at engaging and dialoguing with the leadership of the Judiciary on issues of national concern that impact Ghana’s development. Similar engagements which have achieved some feats have been held with Ghana`s President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo and Parliament of Ghana.
Presenting his speech on behalf of the CSOs, Dr. Franklin Oduro, the Deputy Executive Director of Ghana Centre for Democratic Development indicated that over time, Ghana’s democracy has undergone a myriad of dynamics which have strengthened and consolidated our gains and progress as a country. The role of the Judiciary in these gains can neither be overlooked nor ignored. A critical example was the 2012 Elections petition which put Ghana’s multiparty democracy to test. According to Dr. Oduro, “the Judiciary, beyond all reasonable doubt, proved its mettle in ensuring a peaceful resolution of the petition. At the end of the day, the ruling of the Supreme Court was accepted by both parties involved”.
Among other things, Dr. Oduro lauded an online portal and Public Relations and Complaints Units (PRCUs) being established by the Judiciary to help deal with public complaints, the recent visits by the Chief Justice and her entourage to some courts across the country and commended the Judiciary in establishing its own National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP). He requested for feedback from the leadership of the Judiciary on these engagements. The CSOs also entreated the Judiciary to design and implement a public relations strategy that will ensure effective engagement to make the Judiciary operations more visible among the citizenry. Further, the Judiciary should endeavour to decentralize the PRCUs beyond the Kumasi and Sekondi-Takoradi Offices as well as the Public Complaints & Court Inspectorate in Accra to cover the remaining parts of Ghana.
On her part, Justice Sophia Akuffo lauded the visit and indicated that a digital platform on the NACAP by the judiciary has been launched and selected judges have been trained on how to use the software. She also stressed that the Judicial Service has started a Paperless Filing System (PFS) aimed at dealing with the challenges associated with the manual process and by the year 2023, the whole country should be benefiting from the PFS.
Again, the Judiciary was working on adopting a case tracking system to make use of technology in the administration of justice and hoped that by the year 2020, “the criminal justice case tracking system will come on stream”, the Chief Justice added. Justice Sophia Akuffo also entreated the public not to pay/give any money to any of the judicial staff except those designated employees working for the various banks stationed at the various court premises and request appropriate receipts.
The engagement was part of a STAR-Ghana-funded intervention being championed by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition titled “Facilitating CSOs engagement with government for responsive governance” which is aimed at helping to improve responsiveness from the three (3) arms of government whiles fostering and sustaining an interactive platform for CSOs to periodically engage and dialogue with the arms of government concerning key governance and development issues.
