Attorney General’s Department given clearance for new staff

• Miss Gloria Akuffo, Attorney General and Minister of Justice in handshake with the UER Minister, Mr Rockson Ayine Bukari in the office of the Regional Coordinating Council

The Attorney General’s Department and Ministry of Justice, will be made more vibrant to help in the dispensation of effective justice in the country, Miss Gloria Akuffo, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, has said.

She was speaking during a familiarisation visit to Bolgatanga, in the Upper East Region on Wednesday.

Miss Akuffo said as part of the process to make the ministry vibrant, the Ministry of Finance had granted the go-ahead to employ 50 new staff  to augment its current staff strength for improved performance.

She said a case had been made to the National Service Secretariat to ensure that newly trained lawyers were posted to the various departments and agencies under the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department, as part of their national service, so as to help address the problem of inadequate staffing.

Miss Akuffo who  admitted that her outfit would  need  about  600 staff  to operate well  , indicated that it was currently  understaffed  with only 300 staff  making it very difficult for the Ministry to discharge its mandated functions effectively.

The Minister who mentioned the lack of office and staff accommodation, vehicles   and  logistics among others as some of the  challenges raised by the staff during her separate visits to the Northern,  Upper East and Upper West Regions,  stated  that, currently government cannot address all the challenges but would do that gradually.

She said servicing of loans and statutory debts inherited by the ruling government  from the previous government, had made it  very difficult to provide the needs of the Ministry and  therefore appealed to the staff of the regions  to prioritise their needs and to submit them to the Ministry so as to see how they could  be addressed

Miss Akuffo who interacted with the Regional Minister, Mr Rockson Ayine Bukari and some key staff of the Regional Coordinating Council including the staff of the Regional Directorate of the  Attorney General’s Department, Economic and Organised Crimes Office,  the Legal Aid Scheme among others,  explained that the intention of her  familiarisation visit  was to afford her the  opportunity to learn at firsthand the challenges facing the staff in the region and how to help  address such challenges.

The Regional Minister who thanked the sector minister for the tour appealed to the minister to post two more state attorneys to the region to bring the number to four to provide legal services to all the 13 municipalities and districts in the region.

He also impressed upon the sector minister to collaborate with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), to ensure that the Police and the Staff of the Attorney General Department work together to promote justice delivery in the country.

The Regional Minister also complained about the shortage of police investigators in the region and impressed upon the minister to lobby the IGP to post more investigators to the region.

From Samuel Akapule, Bolgatanga