Chief urges government to scale up implementation of case tracking system
Nana Kwabena Amponsah, the Kontinhene of Obenemase in the Asante-Akim Central Municipality, has appealed to the government to scale up the implementation of the Ghana Case Tracking System (CTS) to improve justice delivery.
He said the CTS, if effectively implemented, could address the wanton abuse of people’s rights in the criminal justice system and also promote transparency among the key justice sector institutions in handling criminal cases.
The CTS is an integrated software that tracks criminal cases in the justice delivery system from inception until their disposition.
It tracks cases from the beginning at the Police Station or Economic and organized Crime Office (EOCO) throughout the processes within the key justice sector institutions, including the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, Legal Aid Commission, Judicial Service and the Ghana Prisons Service.
It was launched in 2018 by the Government with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote speedy trial of criminal cases.
As part of its implementation, USAID is supporting three Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), including the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Legal Resources Centre and Crime Check Foundation, to engage and empower the public to demand accountability and improved services through a project dubbed, “USAID Justice Sector Support Activity.”
The project is being implemented in 147 districts across seven regions in collaboration with local CSOs.
In the Ashanti Region, six Municipalities including Asante-Akim South, Asante-Akim Central, Obuasi West, Kwabre East, Asokwa and Kumasi Metro are benefiting from the project.
The chief who was speaking to the media after a town hall meeting at Obenemase where residents were educated on the CTS and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), said the initiative was laudable and must be supported by all Ghanaians.
He called on the government to extend the CTS to all police stations across the country and insist on strict adherence in order to restore public confidence in the work of the police and other related justice sector institutions.
He said people were languishing in prisons because their cases had been forgotten due to defects in the justice delivery system, stressing the need to pririotise the CTS as a people to eliminate such injustices from the system.
Mr. Philip Duah, the Executive Director of Abak Foundation, a local partner of the project, said people were increasingly losing confidence in the criminal justice system due to the blatant abuse of their rights by players in the justice sector.
He was of the firm conviction that the introduction of the CTS would promote fairness in the system because of the number of actors involved in the process.
“We need to do more as a country to make sure there is some kind of trust and transparency in our justice delivery system and I believe the CTS is one of the surest way to achieve that,” he advocated.
Source: GNA