Corruption with us since Adam - Supreme Court Judge

A Supreme Court Judge, His Lordship Justice S.A. Brobbey, has reiterated that corruption has being with man since the time of Adam and that eradicating it completely calls for the behavioural change of human beings.

According to him, if people are asked to pay bribe and they refuse to pay, the recipient would be denied the opportunity of taking bribes.
He indicated that it was the same people who paid the bribes that turned round to complain about what they have paid and when they were asked what the point was in paying, they only used the payment as an evidence of corruption.

Justice Brobbey made this statement in response to a question posed to him on the state of corruption in the Ghana Police Service at the Judicial Service (JS) Outreach Forum held at Dodowa in the Dangme West District of Accra.

The aim of the forum was to share with members of the community the roles and responsibilities of the judiciary in assisting individuals to access justice and engaging the public in information gathering at the community level to assist the judiciary to improve service delivery.

Speaking on the theme, "Access to Justice: The Role of the Communities and Judicial Service in Strengthening Judicial Integrity and Capability in Ghana," Justice Brobbey stated that as far as the Judiciary Service was concerned, the public had the right to demand quality service and there should be no room for shoddy service delivery.

He emphasised that, in order to carry out quality service, the duty of the JS was to employ and post judges, magistrates, and administrative staff to all courts and train the judges and court staff for efficient and effective service delivery.

The Supreme Court judge noted that another duty of the JS was to make justice available and less costly to all users of legal facilities as well as promote justice delivery that was comprehensive o all citizens and protect the right of citizens.

He further stated that the JS had started improving capacity building by institutionalising training under the JS Training Institute, reexamining court rules, making them available to everybody and advertising court fees with the view to assist parties involved in cases to know the appropriate fees payable for various services rendered.

Source: The Chronicle