The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame has presented to seven agencies under his Ministry some 91 vehicles to enhance their work.
These agencies that perform crucial roles in the justice delivery sector have been inundated with equipment and logistics to enhance their operations.
It was at this point that, the sector Minister, Godfred Dame since becoming the AG in March 5, 2021, pledged his unalloyed commitment to a resolution of the age-old problems militating against the work of the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice.
At a short ceremony at the State Protocol Department of the State House, the AG presented the keys to all according to their needs.
The 91 vehicles and one Motorcycle to the regional offices and agencies under the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice include 39 Saloon cars, 42 Toyota Pick-Ups, 4 Toyota Fortuner, 3 Toyota Landcruiser V8, 1 Toyota Coaster 32 – seater bus, 2 Toyota Hiace Mini bus and 1 Motorcycle.
Addressing the gathering, Mr Dame said, the problems associated to these agencies Principally relate to poor physical infrastructure, grossly insufficient budget for the operations of the Ministry, lack of vehicles to facilitate the duties of state attorneys in justice delivery and severe technological challenges.
According to him, in order to obtain a primary and comprehensive insight into the specific needs of various agencies and regional offices of the Ministry, he requested the relevant heads for a presentation of what I termed “urgent needs.”
Special appeal
The AG said, the presentation follows a special appeal he made to Cabinet in June last year, in consequence of which the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, directed the Minister for Finance to ensure a satisfaction of all the needs.
“I am happy to state that by the Grace of God, the Minister for Finance approved of the release of the entire sum stated as required for a discharge of the urgent needs of our Ministry.
“We are profoundly grateful to His Excellency the President and the Honourable Minister for Finance,” he expressed.
Working visits
The fleet of vehicles according to the AG will make a positive impact on the work of the Office of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice.
“I just concluded working visits to the head offices of various agencies under the Ministry of Justice, to ascertain at first hand the physical conditions under which they operate.
According to the AG, “these visits were revealing as the hugely undesirable working environments of some agencies and the lack of basic tools for service to the nation came to the fore.
“For instance, the Legal Aid Commission, that institution of state playing the noble role of providing legal service for the indigent and the vulnerable in society, presently, has only 6 vehicles throughout the country,” Mr Dame observed.
Breakdown of vehicles
With the 91 vehicles presented, legal Aid Commission receive 13, the Council for Law Reporting received four 4, the Law Reform Commission which presently had only 1 vehicle, a pick up vehicle since 1996 were presented with 1 pick up and a saloon car.
“The Copyright Office has 5 vehicles, the last of which they bought in 2008. Today, they receive 2 more. The Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) will add 13 vehicles more to their fleet,” the AG noted.
“Every Regional Office and other relevant agencies under the Ministry will have their fair share of this supply of vehicles. Indeed, this delivery constitutes the biggest supply of vehicles at a single time in the history of the Ministry,”
Modern public legal service
According to him, “the industry of state attorneys must be properly complemented with a supply of resources needed to assist in the discharge of their functions.”
“It is my hope that today will mark the beginning of the realisation of my quest to set up a modern public legal service for our nation fully equipped to live up to its onerous constitutional and statutory duties to the Republic of Ghana.
“In this regard, I have undertaken to end the long-standing office accommodation problem the Office has laboured under for decades. Work on a 12 – storey building to accommodate the Office, which commenced about twenty (20) years ago but was estimated by the contractors to be only about 30% complete when I assumed office, is steadily progressing and is on course to be completed by the end of this year.
“We cannot have a modern legal service without a fully functional digitised working environment. I will thus take steps to obtain the requisite funding to ensure the operationalisation of an integrated information management system for the Office of Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice,” the AG said.
These vehicles he said hoped will literally serve as the vehicle for an enhanced role of the Office of the Attorney-General in justice delivery in Ghana.
