A former Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Nii Ayikoi Otoo has suggested the Bar Association can do more to help improve the poor state of infrastructure of courts across the country.
His suggestion followed a Joy News report which highlighted that courts, including the KMA Circuit Court and Kumasi High Court were in need of immediate attention.
The Circuit Court has been in use since the 80's but has never seen any major rehabilitation. The Judges’ chamber also doubles as the enclosure for exhibits and dockets.
Also, the Circuit Court in the Upper East has been described as a ‘colonial antic’. It also houses an office of the Fire Service department. The gate at the court is not swung open. It is picked up.
“Who doesn’t know the court structures are poor?”, one frustrated lawyer retorted during an interview.
Clearly, all is not well with the third arm of government, a Joy News report concluded.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Newsnight, Nii Ayikoi Otoo admitted, this poor state has been a perennial problem of the Judiciary.
The former president of the Greater Accra branch of the Ghana Bar Association related personal observations about poor state of courts he has visited as a lawyer.
He pointed out that funds generated by the judiciary go into the Consolidated Fund and go through a detailed process before disbursement to state institutions.
He recalled efforts of the Kufuor Administration to allocate part of the judiciary’s internally generated funds to help address administrative problems.
The former A-G said government releases funds for the judiciary on a quarterly basis after presenting its budget for parliamentary approval.
He rationalized that despite poor conditions of the courts, some courts such as the commercial and land courts have been fitted “beautifully” with air conditioners, recorders and new carpets.
He further suggested that the Bar Association raises funds from lawyers to help improve deplorable conditions of the courts.
It would not be entirely new because he recalled how at a meeting in a Swedru Circuit court, lawyers contributed to paint a court after a judge made an appeal to them.
This benevolence could be replicated nationwide, he indicated.
