Attorney General to recruit 50 new staff

Tamale, Feb. 14, – Miss Gloria Akuffo, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, has said her Ministry is in the process of recruiting 50 new staff members to augment its current staff strength for improved performance.

She said the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department needs 600 staff members to operate well but it currently operates with only 300 staff members, a situation which posed a challenge to its operations.

Miss Akuffo said this in Tamale on Wednesday when she interacted with staff of the various departments and agencies under the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department in the Northern Region.

She said her Ministry made a case for more staff to be recruited but the Ministry of Finance gave financial clearance for only 50 staff to be recruited adding 200 people applied to be recruited out of which 50 were being considered for recruitment.

The interaction was to afford the Minister opportunity to learn at first hand the challenges facing the staff in the region and how such challenges could be addressed.

The departments and agencies she interacted with included the Attorney General’s Department, Economic and Organized Crimes Office, Registrar General’s Department, and the Legal Aid Scheme.

Challenges raised by staff included poor staff strength, poor infrastructure and office equipment, and poor funding.

Miss Akuffo said she was also working to ensure that newly trained lawyers were posted to the various departments and agencies under the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department to undertake their national service to help ameliorate the inadequate staff situation.

She assured staff of working to address some of their challenges to improve their working environment to better serve the country.

Mr Issah Mahmudu, Northern Regional Director of the Legal Aid Scheme, thanked the Minister for visiting the region to interact with staff expressing hope that she would make efforts to address challenges facing the various departments and agencies in the region.

The Minister earlier met with Mr Salifu Saeed, Northern Regional Minister to brief him about her mission in the region where the Regional Minister expressed need for Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism to be expanded to reduce workload on the courts in the region.

GNA