Ghana’s judiciary perceived to be corrupt – Survey

A nationwide research conducted by Law and Development Associates, a law and research firm, in July indicates that 90% of respondents perceive Ghana’s judiciary to be corrupt.

About 70% of respondents had made unofficial payments (bribe) to some officials in the justice sector for services rendered to them or relations.

The research which was sponsored by the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was to assess the justice sector, under its annual Baseline Survey of the Justice Sector of Ghana.

In all 1,005 respondents were interviewed for the survey from the 10 regions, Dr Raymond Atuguba, Principal Research, Law and Development Associates, made this known during a validation meeting on the survey at Dodowa in Greater Accra Region on Tuesday.

He said 40 per cent of respondents unequivocally stated that they had had some knowledge or experience of the formal justice system while 60 per cent said otherwise or responded in the negative.

He said the survey indicates that one-third of the respondents had interacted with the Ghana Police Service before while majority of the respondents indicated that they had never interacted with prosecutors, Legal Aid, Commission on Human and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) officials.

“The data indicates that 38 per cent of respondents had had knowledge or experience of the informal justice system such as visiting the shrine or the chief’s palace,” he said.

The researchers recommended reforms to tackle justice sector institutions, a more robust institutionalisation of ADR in the administration of justice, and the speeding up of justice delivery.

Others include the education of the citizenry on the justice system and the improvement on the professionalism of administrators of justice, and more allocation of resource to the justice sector institutions for effective performance.

Dr Benjamin Kumbour, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, noted that the validation meeting formed another critical stage in the process of fine tuning the nation’s reform strategy for the justice sector.

“The desire of government is to have a justice system that is accessible, delivers real and speedy justice and is affordable to every citizen,” he said.

He expressed government’s appreciation to the UNDP for its support towards the survey adding that government would support any initiative that would lead to the achievement of the objectives.

Mr Kamil Kamaluddeen, UNDP Country Director, expressed appreciation to government for its political commitment towards the survey and its resolve to strengthen the justice sector.

He said the findings would provide quantitative and qualitative information on the current levels of public and user knowledge, and the overall workings of both the formal and informal justice sectors.

He observed that although Ghana had made strides in many sectors including the justice sector, much needed to be done to ensure better and effective justice delivery for all, especially the vulnerable.

Participants for the two days programme were drawn from CHRAJ, Ministry of the Interior, Ghana Police Service, Ghana Prisons Service and the Legal Aid Scheme.

Source: GNA