Ghanaian Government Launch’s E-Justice Project for Refining Justice Delivery Process
The Ghanaian government has launched an e-Justice project which is targeted at refining Ghana’s justice delivery process.
The launch of the paperless court system signals a widespread adoption of digital technologies in justice in Africa, with countries like introduced such systems earlier.
The e-justice project is a US$97 million World Bank funded electronic system that would see the country’s courts run paperless, and its said it would provide an electronic platform to automate case filing, fee assessment, online payments and execution of court decisions, a clear departure from the days of manual assignments, which had the tendency to pervert the course of justice, among other functions.
President Akufo-Addo in a speech at the lunching, said the platform will help reduce the costs associated with manual execution of tasks, ending the age-old “missing dockets” phenomenon and save time especially with regards to court case which has made efficient delivery of justice in the country impossible for some times now.
The Chief Justice of Ghana Sophia Akuffo said all courts across the country should be connected to the system by 2025 and the Judicial Service, the project’s implementing agency, is holding discussions with the World Bank in that regard.
He further said, there will be no chance of losing cases filed electronically and the progress of such cases would be easier to track to effect due compliance with rules.
It is our hope that Africa will have a seamless justice administration and delivery system that will speed up considerably processes from commencement of suits up to the final appeal.
It is also the African mission to improve case management through the expansion of ICT infrastructure and use it to change the paper-based practice to enable the use of ICT and enhance justice delivery.
The records of World Bank show that the call for expression for consultant services to develop the system was first made in 2011. The consultant was to study similar e-Justice system implementation in Turkey, Guatemala, UK and Australia to recommend best practices for Ghana.
Since the assumption of office by the Ghanaian President Akufo-Addo in 2017, several policy measures have been introduced to help bridge the gap of technology in the justice delivery system.
