Legal Aid Scheme appeals for permanent offices
The executive director of the Legal Aid Scheme (LAS), Mr Alhassan Y. Seini, has appealed to the government to complete its head office building complex which has been abandoned for sometime.
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He said the scheme, in its quest to provide an effective justice delivery system, had been faced with serious office accommodation challenges.
Currently, Mr Seini said the scheme had no permanent offices, a situation which was impeding its effective functioning.
“Apart from four regional capitals: Kumasi, Tamale, Sekondi-Takoradi and Sunyani, where we have our own offices, in other regional capitals, we either operate from court premises or the district assemblies, making work very difficult,” he explained.
Liaise effectively
Making the appeal in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, Mr Seini said to be effective, the superiors have to liaise effectively with their subordinates nationwide, but “unfortunately we don’t have a permanent head office.”
He added that “the scheme is visible in only the 10 regional capitals, and 19 district offices, making it difficult to provide legal aid as it ought to be”.
The head office, he said, was jointly operating with its Accra office in a seven-room building of the Council for Law Reporting (CLR).
That, Mr Seini observed, was inadequate considering the coverage of clients received in the Greater Accra Region alone.
The LAS is mandated to provide legal services, including preparation of legal documents, legal advice and representation in court to the less privileged in the country.
A four-storey building
To address its accommodation challenges, Mr Seini said, the scheme in 1999-2000 acquired a land to build a four-storey building as its head office.
However, in 2001, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice (AGMJ) reviewed the plan, and “redesigned it to a 10-storey building with a parking basement”.
The redesigning of the edifice by the ministry, he said, was to house the legal aid scheme and other agencies within the ministry.
“As of 2009, only the basement is what has been done. In 2010, the skeletal structure was raised to the 10th floor, and since then nothing has happened to the building. As I speak, the contractors have abandoned the site,” he stated.
He said the current Minister of Justice, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, had plans to work on it but anything concrete was yet to be seen.
For his part, the acting Chief Director at the AG’s Department, Mr Suleiman Ahmed, said the ministry had plans to complete the 10-storey office complex but there were financial challenges.