Veep launches Ghana Case Tracking System
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, yesterday launched the Ghana Case Tracking System (Ghana CTS) and urged all stakeholders to be steadfast in ensuring its success to make for effective justice delivery in the country.
The Ghana CTS, which is being funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), will collate data from the Attorney-General’s Department, the Ghana Police Service, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and the Ghana Prisons Service as part of moves to efficiently manage cases in the country’s criminal justice system.
He said the prospects for justice delivery with a successful implementation of the project would be invaluable.
Dr Bawumia indicated that the successful implementation of the project was going to hurt the fortunes of some selfish, corrupt and unpatriotic actors in the justice delivery chain whom, he noted, would, therefore, want to do anything just to sabotage the process.
“We have experienced this in our Paperless Port Project. Be under no illusion that we are working with angels,” he stressed.
“It is, therefore, important to have high stakes buy-in from the leaders of the key stakeholders in the justice delivery system,” he stated.
Dr Bawumia said: “A Ghana where systems work efficiently and effectively to support the activities of law-abiding citizens is the Ghana that we want, and the Ghana we must all work diligently to make a reality for the future.”
Ghana CTS
With the activation of the project, there will be clear and accountable tracking of cases from initiation, right through to judgement. Users of the system will be able to assign activities and track the execution of those activities.
This will enable the various stakeholders to keep case processing on track by identifying delays in individual cases and bringing to light major bottlenecks in the system.
Similarly, the system will provide managements of the various key sector agencies with the required tools to track progress of cases, monitor the overall performance of the actors within the criminal justice sector and appropriately allocate resources, with a view to improving performance standards.
Benefits
Dr Bawumia said the execution of the project had the potential to generate immense benefits for the country in seeking to fulfil the ends of criminal law, which was essential to promote peace, security and order in society.
He added that it would also generate reliable and readily verifiable statistical data on the criminal justice system that would be useful for various stakeholders, including the academia and civil society, for strategic planning and other purposes.
The Vice-President noted that the project gave further impetus to the government’s push to place Information and Communications Technology (ICT) at the heart of all governance and economic processes.
Other speakers
For her part, the Chief Justice, Ms Justice Sophia Akuffo, said the project would go a long way to improve justice delivery in the country.
She gave an assurance that the Judicial Service would do all it could to ensure the successful implementation and continuity of the project and urged all stakeholders to assume ownership of the project to make it a success.
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Ms Gloria Afua Akuffo, in her remarks, said the project involved the merging of the old system into a new one and for that reason, the project could not be successful in the absence of honesty and integrity on the part of its handlers.
She, therefore, urged the personnel who would be collating the data to be honest and deliver with integrity.
The United States (US) Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Robert Jackson, said he was excited with the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor and expressed the hope that Parliament would soon pass the Right to Information Bill.
He said security threats such as cyber crimes, cross-border crimes and terrorism, among others were real and for that matter, collaboration among countries was the only way such vices could be fought.