Justice delivery system has sunk to dangerously low levels - GBA

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Category: Briefs & Memos

Created on Wednesday, 18 June 2014 00:00

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Justice delivery system has sunk to dangerously low levels - GBA

The Ghana Bar Association says it is appalled by the degrading and inhuman conditions under which judges of the High Court and District Court have been made to work and live.

The National Executives of the Association after their annual tour of the regions said the "sorry conditions" of the residences and offices of the judges do not augur well for justice delivery in the country.

In a statement issued and jointly signed by National President and Secretary of the GBA Nene Amegatcher and Justin Amenuvor respectively, described the living conditions of the judges as follows;

"There were damaged doors, windows, ceiling, tiles, leaking roofs, broken sewage­ cisterns. The houses were in a state of disrepair which does not befit the residence of members of judicial arm of government. In other places, reptiles crept into the judicial bungalows because of the overgrown environment."

The working conditions of the judges were no different, the GBA statement said.

"There were cracked walls, leaking roofs, poor sanitation, lack of running water, broken down airconditioners and infrastructure.

The situation, according to the GBA, is attributed to government's failure to release funds for the maintenance and upkeep of the judges.

The GBA lamented that judges have to virtually go on their knees to beg government to pay statutory funds which have been in arrears in for over a year now.

Such must not be the plight of an important arm of government like the judiciary, the statement hinted.

The combined effect of these poor living and working conditions have negatively affected justice delivery in the country, the statement contended.

Source: Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah