Bolgatanga, Feb. 15, - Ms Gloria
Akuffo, Attorney General (AG) and Minister for Justice, has pledged to speed up
the restructuring of the Legal Aid Scheme into a Commission to make it more
independent and effective.
She said the Scheme has not
operated effectively in the past due to its outdated structures adding that it
is important to upgrade it to make it more accessible to the citizenry who may
want to access its services.
The Minister made the pledge in
Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region during a working visit where she interacted
with the staffs of the Attorney General’s Department, the Economic and
Organized Crime Office (EOCO), and the Legal Aid Scheme.
She said her outfit has
successfully obtained approval from cabinet to upgrade the Scheme into a
Commission (Legal Aid Commission Bill) and noted that when Parliament passes
the Bill into an Act of Law, the Legal Aid Commission would be more attractive
to engage lawyers who would be charged to offer the best of services to its
clients.
She said her outfit inherited a
lot of debts which were being serviced from incomes that accrued to the
Ministry adding that this was having a negative impact on the purse of the
Ministry.
The visit was aimed at reviewing
and evaluating activities of personnel of the Attorney General Department to
identify challenges and together find steps to address them.
Ms Akuffo said once the Legal Aid
Scheme becomes a Commission, it would operate on a bigger scheme, and be
resourced with the requisite personnel to drive it, adding that all recruitment
challenges would be addressed effectively.
Responding to challenges that
rose on the limited number of courts and long distance travels clients make to
the Municipality to litigate in the courts, she said the District Assemblies
had the responsibility to put up the needed structures, and indicated that when
the structures are constructed by the Assemblies, the Judicial Service would
furnish them with the needed personnel.
During her interaction with the
staff, she urged the personnel to do their best in the midst of the numerous
challenges, prioritize the workable ones to improve the situation in the
various departments as well as decouple issues that do not have financial
implications and start working on them.
She said there are plans to
recruit about 190 personnel to feed in vacancies and strengthen other
institutions under the Ministry adding that when given clearance from the
Ministry of Finance, more of the challenges within the Ministry would be
addressed effectively.
She said visits of such nature
and the continuous interaction with staff of the various institutions would
help identify challenges and ensure that plans are put in place to identify
reasons that account for their inability to effectively work.
Mr George Kpodo, Chief State
Attorney, enumerated challenges confronting the Department in the region as
office accommodation, delays in staff allowances adding that the only vehicle
which was more than 10 years old was draining the coffers of the office with
continuous breakdowns.
He said shortage of staff is
hampering work, because some have retired and those vacancies were not filled
and currently the region had only two lawyers managing the Department and
called on the Minister to strengthen the office with at least five additional
lawyers.
He also called for competent
police investigators to the region to handle cases.
Even though challenges of the
EOCO and the Legal Aid Scheme were not different, shortage of lawyers to
resolve cases, staff recruitment and remuneration were placed high.
The AG’s team consisted Mrs
Hellen Ziwu, Solicitor General, Mrs Yvonne Obuobisa, Director of Public
Persecution, and Mr Suleiman Ahmed, Chief Director at the Office of the AG and
the Ministry of Justice.
They earlier paid courtesy call
on the Regional Minister, Mr Rockson Bukari who reiterated the need for peace
to prevail in the region adding that the two State Attorneys in the region were
inadequate to cater for the numerous cases filed through them.
GNA
No comments:
Post a Comment