'Paperless courts' will drastically reduce corruption in justice delivery – Chief Justice

Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, has stated that the use of technology, particularly the digitization of cases, in Ghana’s justice delivery system will greatly reduce, if not eliminate corruption in justice delivery and administration.

“In a speech delivered on her behalf by Justice Clemence J. Honyenuga, a Justice of the Court of Appeal, Ms Akuffo stated that the digitisation of the courts under the E-Justice project will reduce or eradicate corruption as well as speed up the delivery of justice, ending prolonged delays and promoting equity.

“… there is also underway the Electronic Case Management System, the E-Justice, to reduce corruption. The E-justice system, dubbed ‘Paperless courts’, is aimed at achieving a paperless economic, social and legal environment… and is aimed at automation and digitisation of the judicial processes. Its full implementation will bring to closure, the manual filing of processes and its attendant breeding of corruption that is inimical to justice delivery. It is currently being implemented in the courts Accra, to be expanded to the regions from 2020 onwards.

“Further, the introduction of the Ghana Case Tracking System is aimed at addressing the challenges facing the justice delivery system to support key stakeholders to collect, collate and harmonise statistical data for effective justice delivery. This is to boost the robustness of the judicial processes. All the stakeholders in the criminal justice system are part of this system which is being implemented throughout the country. It is expected to be inaugurated in the early part of 2020, “she said at the closing ceremony for the 2019 edition of the Anti-Corruption and Transparency Week organised by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in collaboration with actors engaged in the anti-corruption fight in Ghana, in Accra last Monday.

The Chief Justice added that as part of the digitisation, cases will be distributed to judges electronically so as to avoid issues of favouritism, unfairness or bias since the human element will be taken out.

“…the electronic case distribution system, which is aimed at distributing cases to judges electronically has been extended to all Superior courts and Circuit courts throughout the country. This is to ensure fair, transparent and equitable distribution of cases to avoid favour, bias and corruption,” she stressed.

The Vice President Bawumia, in his closing remarks, declared that Government’s Digitization agenda was crucial to the fight against corruption, stressing that “we are putting in place digital systems to reduce the opportunities for corruption. Such measures are beginning to yield positive fruits, and we are confident that this is the way to go. With digitisation, what you are trying to do is stop corruption ex-ante rather than deal with it ex-post (before the fact and not after the fact.)”

Many have complained about persistent delays in justice delivery in Ghana owing to the manual way of doing things. Implementation of this E-justice system is expected to greatly such delays.