Government committed to free and independent Judiciary -Prez Mahama

Accra, Feb. 26, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama said the Government remained committed to a free and independent Judiciary, and would continue to support measures aimed at ensuring efficient and speedy administration of justice.

He said in view of this a new court complex that would house 34 courts initiated by Late President Prof. John Atta Mills was nearing completion.

Government had also provided three video-conferencing and tele-presence equipment to enable the Judicial Service conduct face-to-face interaction with judges in Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi, he said.  

Delivering the State of the Nation Address on Thursday in Parliament, the President said in the next 18 months disbursement of US$5million for the e-Justice project with the sole objective of assisting in the speedy and efficient delivery of justice would be done.

This project, he said, also covered the Attorney General's Department.

In the area of combating corruption, President Mahama said with the significant improvement in salaries occasioned by the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), there could be no justification for the continued bribes demanded from members of the public before they accessed social services, or the wanton misappropriation and theft of public resources.

He said in every facet of life one encountered corruption, at the ports when business people under-declare the value of goods to avoid paying the right duties to the state, draining fuel from Government vehicles, and some officers taking bribes from motorists for traffic infractions, among others.

And yet at every level there were responsible officers who were to exercise oversight of the activities in the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, he said.

'If these were our private businesses we surely would not accept the conduct that we see exhibited in the Public Service and that are continuously exposed in the reports of the Auditor General on an annual basis.  

'Ghana is bleeding from all of these acts of mismanagement and malfeasance and leadership at all levels should take responsibility for their areas of oversight and will be made to do so. We must all support the fight against corruption,' the President said.

'Recently there were reports of a spate of suspicious fires that had gutted records or warehouses that were subjected to audit or about to be subjected to audit. Our directors, inspectors and all heads of institutions must sit up,' he said.

Parliament in July 2014 adopted the National Anti-corruption Action Plan and Strategy, which is the overarching plan to combat corruption in the country.

He said in December 2014, a High Level Implementation Committee to be responsible for the implementation of NACAP was established to provide strategic policy guidance from the highest level of government to MDAs and other implementing partners as well as assist CHRAJ and the NDPC in monitoring the implementation of NACAP.

'The process of investigation and prosecution of allegations of corruption, economic crimes and mismanagement by the EOCO and the AG's Department have been subject to delay and have been unable to fulfill their mandate,' the President said.

President Mahama said the institutions of state that were responsible for the task of investigating corruption must be strengthened legally and institutionally.

He called on Parliament to review the legal and institutional framework that supported the work of the investigative and prosecutorial agencies in order to enable them to live up to the expectations of an expectant and exasperated nation.  

'I have as President made strenuous efforts to expose, investigate and deal with matters of corruption within the constraints of the law.

Our efforts at exposing corruption may result in an erroneous belief that the practice is more pervasive now than before when in fact the reverse is the case as evidenced in our performance in recent TI reports,' he said.

President Mahama urged all anti-graft institutions to promptly investigate allegations and take swift actions to protect the public purse with other arms of Government to support to make corruption a high-risk activity.

The President noted that while exposing and fighting corruption, it was important to also tighten systems to ensure that existing loopholes were sealed to avoid a recurrence and one major way to achieve this was with the use of information technology.

The BNI investigations into allegations of fraud in the National Service Schemes pay roll, revealed an organised system of misappropriating government funds through the insertion of ghost service personnel.

Investigators have so far retrieved over GHC20 million.  

In addition some officials of the service are currently before court.

President Mahama said the prosecution of public officials involved in the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Authority (GYEEDA) is ongoing and monies were being retrieved from the service providers.

A new YEA to replace GYEEDA had just been approved by Parliament.

He said all the checks and controls for proper accountability would be used to ensure that the youth of Ghana benefitted fully from this all important project, while major steps had also been taken to bring SADA back on course.

'Also a new Board was reconstituted and an acting CEO appointed. Significant progress is being made in terms of reforms in many areas of SADA's operations in line with its core mandate,' he said.  

He assured that Government would continue to strengthen the integration of the Ghana Integrated and Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) with the Human Resource and Management Information System to eliminate institutional weaknesses, which allowed criminal elements to perpetrate pay-roll fraud.   

'The Judgment Debt Commission and the Brazil 2014 Commission of Inquiry have concluded their work and the reports are due soon. Upon receipt of the reports Government will study them and take the necessary and appropriate actions,' the President said.

He said a number of Bills laid before Parliament in 2014, i.e. the Conduct of Public Officers' Bill; the Whistle Blowers (Amendment) Bill and the Right to Information Bill, when enacted into law, would significantly deal with the identified gaps.

The Minister for Justice and Attorney General would also ensure that the Witness Protection Bill and a Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill are laid before the House. GNA