'Judicial Corruption: Who will arrest the watchman?'

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'Judicial Corruption: Who will arrest the watchman?'

Details: Parent Category: Our Country; Category: Politics; Created on Saturday, 23 July 2011 00:00; Published Date; Hits: 2765

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'Judicial Corruption: Who will arrest the watchman?'

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The Communications Director of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr William Dowokpor, is worried that the Judicial Service which serves as the last resort for people to seek justice is itself plagued with corruption.

The Service, in recent times, has constantly been slammed for allegedly engaging in acts of corruption alongside their mandate to ensure justice in the society.

The Committee for Joint Action (CJA) is the latest organisation to point accusing fingers at the Judicial Service for engaging in massive corruption and misappropriation of funds.

The group claimed a report by the Auditor General’s Department revealed "appalling" corruption within the service, and asked the Chief Justice to institute immediate measures to clean her house.

Its convener, Mr Kwesi Adu, said during a press conference on Tuesday that the corruption in the Judicial Service is gradually eroding public confidence in it as an anti-corruption institute.

On Radio Gold’s current affairs programme Alhaji and Alhaji Saturday, Mr Dowokpor expressed disappointment at the revelations against the service, asking “who is going to arrest the watchman and deal with the watchman?”

“If this is happening in the Judicial Service, what would you expect of other institutions?” he quizzed.

Mr Dowokpor urged people to rely more on civil society to become the conscience of the nation, applauding the CJA for being diligent on the corruption in the Service. He asked the group to exhibit the same attitude irrespective of which government is in power.

General Secretary of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Mr Bernard Monarh, in his submission said the CJA has from its beginning made it clear to the public that it will struggle with Ghanaians for better living conditions.

“And in that struggle, issues of corruption, issues of misapplication, issues of opulent lifestyle of government officials and all will have to be vigorously investigated so that we will be able to save substantial resources for the general use of all of us.”

Commenting on the specific allegations raised by the CJA, Mr Monarh said the Committee realised that huge sums of monies were paid to prosecutors and doctors for autopsies on dead bodies, but they have "not been properly accounted for and there are not even, in most cases, documentation to prove, or evidence that these monies have been received"

He said, "the Judicial Service that is supposed to be a custodian of our laws is not able to put in place that monies cannot be spent or disbursed without a payment voucher. It's strange and at the end of the day several millions of Ghana cedis will get evaporated, will get used and consumed by some individuals; or for some reasons these monies cannot be traced to any payment voucher is a serious, serious problem.”

Mr Monarh bemoaned the attitude of some personnel within the Judicial Service who sought to use their conditions of service to justify the alleged acts of corruption in the Service.

He quoted a joint statement issued on 29th June 2011 by the Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana (AMJG) and the Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSAG) which condemned “persistent vicious and ill motivated attacks on the Judiciary by a section of the public under varying names and descriptions...challenges confronting the Judiciary and the Judicial Service amidst logistical and financial constraints coupled with the difficult and poor conditions of service for both Judges and Staff ought to be the focus for all believers in the rule of law.”

The statement, according to the PNC General Secretary, “is an attempt to justify that if there is even corruption in the Judiciary, because of the logistical constraints, because of the conditions of service that the Judiciary faces, people should not talk about the corruptions but we should concentrate on what the judiciary problems are; and if we concentrate on that we will be serving the rule of law…

“I find this very strange coming from our Judges, our magistrates…” he stated.

Mr Monarh alleged that “the Judiciary itself is corrupt; the judiciary itself is in trillions of difficulties…”

He asked: “Is it any wonder that as a nation, we have witnessed several cases …that concern government officials about financial impropriety…thrown out of our courts on accounts of some technicalities?”

He wondered if the Judiciary throws out cases of corruption before it because the institution was convinced it was corrupt, and would not want to push hard on others for fear that it would trigger an investigation into their own operations.

Mr Kwesi Pratt, Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper and a panelist on the programme, also wanted to know about the kind of accounting system the Judicial Service operated and asked the Chief Justice to ensure that the public purse is protected.

He reminded the CJ of her duty as the administrative head of the Judicial Service, adding that “we are all looking up to her to do what is her duty”.

Story by Dorcas Efe Mensah/myjoyonline.com/Ghana