The woes of the Judicial Service seem to be deepening as State attorneys are abandoning the service for better paying jobs.
This is according to the Director of Public Prosecution, Yvonne Attakora Obuobisa.
Attakora Obuobisa lamented that the trend is hampering the delivery of justice across the country.
[contextly_sidebar id=”GorqZ82V8a2hoEZuPzRqoMUC0Ao2Fuai”]Speaking a meeting with Journalists in Accra on Monday, Attakora Obuobisa called on authorities to take immediate steps to address the problem.
She noted that currently, Accra has only 36 prosecuting attorneys adding that the situation is “worse in the regional offices.”
She said a region as big as the Brong Ahafo region can boast of only two prosecuting attorneys, “two in the Central Region, two in the Upper West Region, three in the Northern Region, three in Volta Region, and six in the Eastern Region.”
“We have low numbers and we are actually overwhelmed. There are so many cases that we have to advise on. It all has to do with a number of factors. For some time now we’ve had high attrition rate, people come and leave because it is always better to work in private practice.”
She explained that some persons take advantage of the system to gain experience and leave to seek greener pastures with private firms.
“People will come, gain the experience and go to better paying jobs, that affects the numbers that we have and the volume of work. We have so much work to do…sometimes you could have a docket sent to us which could be with a particular attorney for about three weeks or a month, not because that attorney does not want to pay attention to the docket but that attorney has for instance 60 other dockets to work on,” she added.
State attorneys strike over poor conditions
State attorneys last year embarked on a strike over what they described as poor working conditions.
A 3-member committee was subsequently set up by the National Labour Commission (NLC) to resolve the issue per a directive by the Employment and Labour Relations Minister.
–
By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin