The Citizen Monitoring Group, CMG mandated to ensure the progress of the Case Tracking System, CTS, in the Northern Region have applauded the US government for the opportunity given them to participate in the rollout of the USAID Justice Sector Support Activity project, JSSA to check breaches in Ghana’s justice system. The group underwent a one-day training programme on their role in supervising the entering of criminal cases onto the CTS and how to educate members of the community about the essence of the CTS. A representative of the Nanumba District on the group who made the call, Mohammed Haki appealed to the implementing partners to always provide them with the necessary logistics and incentives to enable them carryout their mandate seamlessly.

“I am particularly excited just like my colleagues to be part of this training exercise but I would like to request that the organizers provide us identification cards and the needed logistics to help us get attention when we visit the various tracking centers in our district”. He appealed.

Six selected participants drawn from Civil Society Organizations from six selected districts in the region formed the group.

The Rule of law Specialist of the JSSA, Enoch Jengre told crimecheckghana’s Northern Regional correspondent, Zakar Abdul Mumin that he is optimistic that the formation of the group will ensure that the prosecution of criminal cases are fast-tracked to ensure that peoples rights are not violated. He assured the group that the necessary equipment will be provided them to facilitate their obligation.

Mr. Jengre therefore tasked them to work hard for a successful implementation of the JSSA, as their supervisory role on the police to check that every single case has been entered onto the CTS is very important.

According to Mr. Jengre, the members of the group are focal persons of the JSSA in their respective districts where the project is been rolled out and their role will enable citizens to track and monitor cases that are recorded at the various police stations in the region to ensure that breaches in justice delivery are curtailed.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist of the JSSA, Samuel Kant Kombian who was also present urged the trainees to use the knowledge acquired seriously to help fast track the reporting of cases that have piled up at the various police stations to enable the relevant justice sector agencies to deal with them expeditiously.

The members of the CMG during the training session
One of the objectives of the JSSA is to enhance justice delivery in the country through increase in citizens’ knowledge on access to justice. It is also to ensure accountability and transparency of key justice sector institutions on justice delivery. The CTS promotes inter-agency collaboration and information-sharing through the development of an integrated case tracking system to support the Government of Ghana in effectively investigating and prosecuting criminal cases. The group constitutes the first batch of trainees of the already formed CMG’s across the targeted seven regions to undergo the exercise.

Similar training was held in the Upper East Regional capital, Bolgatanga for a five member CMG to end the series of training exercises in the northern zone.