The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has urged Ghana to take advantage of the technology-based Case Tracking System (CTS) in handling criminal cases to help contribute to fairness in justice delivery in the country.
Esther Ahulu, Public Education and Advocacy Specialist at the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), has noted that Ghana’s Justice System is fraught with many challenges. She also lamented about the high cost of filing cases which the CTS has come to address.
“There are a lot of challenges with the justice system in Ghana. There’s barrier to access justice, expensive cost of filing cases and then delay of cases, affordability of lawyers and the fact that people have been on remand for so many years.
“We need the needed advocacy for people to know that CTS has come to address these key challenges. We need to hold the Justice Sector Institutions accountable.”
Esther Ahulu
Meanwhile, Samuel Kombian, a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist with the Legal Resources Commission while revealing the importance of the CTS, stated that “the CTS when working as expected, all the key Justice Sector Institutions would be aware of the progress of a case and be alerted on the platform when a suspect is due for court.”
Mr Kombian further added that “when the person is not being taken to court too, the CTS system will show it. At every point in time, the system would be showing the progress of a particular case and this will ensure the right institution is held accountable.”
In addition, he noted that the CTS system is meant to enhance effective collaboration among the key Justice Sector Institutions. He also added that it is meant to support other programs like the E-justice and Justice for all programs.
“People have been on remand for years and we believe that if this [CTS] is actually taken up by the Justice Sector Institutions, it will help to give access to remand prisoners for their cases to be heard and the necessary solutions given to them.”
Mr Kombian
Meanwhile, the CTS initiative was launched in 2018 by Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to digitally track cases. However, it is not being patronized by key justice sector institutions and the citizenry as expected.
Currently, the system has six key Justice Sector Institutions namely: the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Prisons Service, Legal Aid Commission, Economic and Organized Crime Commission (EOCO), Attorney-General’s Department and the Judiciary.
The Case Tracking System basically promotes the involvement of civil society organizations in advocacy for justice delivery to help deal with the delay experienced by some suspects, especially the vulnerable in resolving their cases.
The CTS is being rolled out in 40 districts in seven regions of Ghana. The software is presently in 757 centres of which the USAID Justice Sector Support activity is monitoring 291.
Meanwhile, the USAID and its partners as part of increasing advocacy on the CTS, selected journalists from seven regions including Greater Accra, Ashanti, Volta, Northern and Western to train them on case processing with oversight and monitoring responsibilities.
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