AG’s Dep’t slammed for no-show in courts

A Senior Lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has slammed the Attorney General’s Department for the incessant absence of a government representative in cases involving the state.

The situation has led to numerous judgement debts incurred by government.

According to the report of the Sole Commissioner set up by President John Dramani Mahama to look into judgement debts, government has paid Gh¢44 billion in judgement debts.

Speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues on Saturday, July 11, Ernest Kofi Abotsi, the Dean of the GIMPA Law School, said the seeming lethargy on the part of the state attorneys could be due to “institutional dysfunction”.

“What are the supervisory mechanisms in place and how functional are these mechanisms?” he wondered.

He also called for better conditions of service for the state attorneys, who recently staged a nationwide strike action.

He said investment can be channelled into building the capacity of these attorneys in order to cut down on the engagement of foreign lawyers in some cases involving the state.