THE ATTORNEY General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, yesterday handed a fleet of 91 cars and a motorcycle to the regional offices and agencies under the Ministry of Justice to facilitate the discharge of their duties.
The handing over of the vehicles, is in fulfillment of a promise made by the AG to resolve the age-old problems militating against the work of the Office of the Ministry of Justice, which relate principally, to poor physical infrastructure, insufficient budget for the operations of the Ministry, lack of vehicles to facilitate the duties of state attorneys in justice delivery and severe technological challenges.
The vehicles handed over comprise 39 Saloon cars, 42 Toyota Pick-Ups, 4 Toyota Fortuner cars, 3 Toyota Land Cruiser V8s, 1 32-seater Toyota Coaster bus, 2 Toyota Hiace Mini buses and one motorcycle.
Aside the agencies, the regional offices of the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice as well as the Head Office in Accra also received new vehicles.
Speaking at a handing over ceremony at the State House in Accra, Mr. Dame disclosed that vehicles and office equipment topped the list of what he termed ‘urgent needs’ during a comprehensive insight into the specific needs of various agencies and regional offices of the Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice.
He bemoaned the deplorable condition under which some agencies under the ministry work as a result of the lack of basic tools for service. These came to the fore during his working visits to the head offices of various agencies under the Ministry of Justice, to ascertain at first hand, the physical conditions under which they operate.
He said, for instance, the Legal Aid Commission which plays the noble role of providing legal service for the indigent and the vulnerable in society, presently, has only six (6) vehicles throughout the country. To this effect, the Mr. Dame handed over 13 new vehicles to the Commission.
Other beneficiary agencies include the Council for Law Reporting, which currently has only two (2) vehicles, was given an additional four (4) vehicles.
The Law Reform Commission which presently has only one vehicle – a pick-up which it acquired in 1996 also got two new vehicles comprising a pick up and a saloon car.
The Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) was given 13 vehicles while the Copyright Office which has 5 vehicles, the last of which they bought in 2008, was given additional two vehicles.
“Every regional office and other relevant agencies under the ministry will have their fair share of this supply of vehicles. Indeed, this delivery constitutes the biggest supply of vehicles at a single time in the history of the Ministry”, Mr. Dame revealed.
The AG indicated that a well-oiled Attorney General’s Department is the biggest signpost for improved conditions in the practice of law.
“The industry of state attorneys must be properly complemented with a supply of resources needed to assist in the discharge of their functions. It is my hope that today will mark the beginning of the realisation of my quest to set up a modern public legal service for our nation fully equipped to live up to its onerous constitutional and statutory duties to the Republic of Ghana.”
Mr. Dame also revealed that he has undertaken to end the long-standing office accommodation problem the office has laboured under for decades, as work on a 12-storey building to accommodate the office, which commenced about twenty (20) years ago, is steadily progressing and would be completed by the end of this year.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak