GBA Expresses Worry Over Judicial Scandal

The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has expressed concern about the recent reports of corruption concerning some staff of the Judicial Service and pledged its commitment to offer assistance to restore the reputation of the justice delivery system.

The association further expressed its support for the efforts by the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Wood, and the Judicial Council to protect the integrity of the Judiciary and ensure that judges and other judicial officers live above reproach.

In a resolution adopted at its annual conference in Kumasi in the middle of September, this year, the GBA called on the Judicial Council to ensure that reforms were made to promote the principles of transparency, accountability and equity in the administration of justice.

The association also raised a number of issues including matters affecting the legal profession, the nation and the international community.

The association expressed concern about what it said were exorbitant filing fees, adding it risked making access to justice the preserve of the rich, leaving the most vulnerable in society without legal representation in legal matters. It therefore, called for a drastic downward review of the current fees.

The GBA also asked the General Legal Council and the Judicial Council to speed up their efforts to improve the ethics for lawyers and judges.

The association further urged the General Legal Council to put before Parliament, a new legislative instrument to give legal backing to the changes it sought in legal education.

On the ongoing debate on the voters register, the GBA cautioned against hasty, poorly informed and premature decisions by the Electoral Commission that could compromise the search for a solution in the national interest.

The GBA also condemned the increasing spate of examination leakages and asked the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) to ensure that such leakages did not recur.

“The Bar calls on WAEC to make public what led to the leakage of the 2015 BECE and the measures taken so far to avoid its recurrence,” the association said.

The Ghana Bar Association (GBA) held a five-day annual conference in Kumasi to deliberate on issues affecting the association, the justice delivery system, the nation and the international community.

The theme was, ‘The rule of law, access to justice and sustainable development – The panacea for political and economic progress of a nation state’.

The conference was addressed by dignitaries, including former President J.A, Kufuor; the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood and the Deputy Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine.

On the ongoing debate on the voters register, the GBA cautioned against hasty, poorly informed and premature decisions by the Electoral Commission.