CJ inaugurates e-justice task force

24/11/12

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru & Fauziatu Adam
THE World Bank has allocated $2 million to support the automation of the country’s judicial system under the e-justice project.
Consequently, the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, yesterday inaugurated a 10-member task force to develop an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to support the speedy delivery and administration of justice.
The task force is chaired by Mr Justice Samuel Marful-Sau, an Appeal Court Judge, with Ms Sandra Thompson, the Director of Reforms and Projects, Ms Ruby Aryeetey, Deputy Director of Reforms, and Mr Francis Baiden, a systems analyst, all of the Judicial Service, as members.
The other members are Mrs Dorothy Kingsley-Nyinah, the Administrator of Commercial Courts, Prof. Jonas Amoapim, the e-justice Programme Officer of the Ministry of Communications, Mr Francis K. Boakye, the Deputy Director of ICT at the University of Ghana, Mr Bismark D. Quashie, an ICT lecturer of the University of Ghana, and a representative of the Ghana Bar Association, whose name is yet to be given.
The formation of the task force followed the outcome of a recent study tour of the e-justice of Turkey by the Chief Justice and the Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu.
Mrs Justice Wood said the judicial service initiated a programme some 10 years ago to automate the country’s judicial service, but indicated that “the approach has been piecemeal” because the project was dependent on donor support.
She, therefore, commended the government for supporting the current e-justice project, which would automate courts across the country, especially regional courts.
That, she said, would promote efficient delivery of justice in the country.
Mrs Justice Wood expressed the hope that the task force, made up of ICT experts and legal persons, would come up with the ICT infrastructure that would ensure the speedy and efficient delivery of justice in the country.
Mr Iddrisu said the study tour of the Turkish e-justice system had offered Ghana an insight into how to transform her e-justice system.
Therefore, he said, the government would organise more study tours for the judicial service to get more exposed to the e-justice system in other countries.