AG’s Dept. trains staff on IT-based case management system

The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame has urged Attorneys and staff at the Ministry to be up-to-date with technology so as to bring speed and productivity into the administration of justice.

He said the Ministry cannot afford to be left behind in an era where the world has embraced technology, hence the need to be abreast of technology that will bring about efficiency in the administration of justice through the newly introduced Integrated Information Management System by the Ministry (IIMS).

Mr Yeboah Dame was speaking at the opening session of a two-day IIMS training workshop for attorneys and staff of the AG's Department across the country on Monday, July 26, 2021.

The IIMS end-to-end training seeks to address shortcomings of the manual filing system currently in use at the various registries.

The manual system, according to the ministry makes retrieval of files very difficult, leads to occasional loss of files and data, poor record keeping, indexing and the absence of a database of in-house cases, a situation that has rendered the AG's office deficient in terms of analysis of data, information and report generation, evaluation of performance, as well as inability to keep electronic versions of existing laws.

The new IIMS is therefore to provide an opportunity to the AG's office to improve its service delivery through automation and modernisation of its current work processes.

Challenges
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice described the problems encountered with data sharing and information management as legendary, adding that most of the time, the Ministry has been made the object of ridicule as a result of files getting lost and the failure to trace vital information, some of which dates back to decades ago.

According to him, the new system was a great step forward towards modernisation to address the challenges that hamper justice delivery and improve good governance as a whole.

Benefits
Mr Dame said the benefits of the new system were significant as it would result in an improved management of data through the use of advance technology for efficient management of the filing system.

He pledged his Ministry's commitment to support the attorneys with resources such as a well-stocked e-library facilities and other resources to enhance justice delivery.

"We do not intend to stick to the ways of doing things in the past and I hope that we will be able to fully accomplish the purpose of the case management system by the Office of Attorney General and Ministry of Justice", he said.

The Solicitor-General of the Ministry of Justice and Office of Attorney General, Mrs. Helen Akpene Awo Ziwu, in her welcoming address said the e-Transform project was a joint collaboration between the Government of Ghana under the auspices of the Ministry of Communication and Digitisation, and the World Bank.

According to her, as part of the deliverables of the project, the consultant, EOH / Tenth Generation Technology System supplied some ICT equipment including desktops, laptops and scanners to the AG's Office as well as the operating software, SAP and Opentest.

She added that following an orientation session, each Head of Division/Unit, namely the Civil Division, Legislative Drafters, Prosecution Division as well as attorneys from the regions were nominated to serve as Super Users and Change Agents for the project.

She urged the participants especially the attorneys to embrace and adapt to this new wave of change and enhance the service delivery of the AG’s Department.

The Consulting Project Manager, Mr Bismarck Dzahene-Quarshie expressed the hope that the system when fully implemented, will lead to a paperless workflow and solve the problems of missing documents and other bottlenecks that hamper justice delivery in the country.

Writer's email: benjamin.glover@graphic.com.gh