Govt to create specialised tribunals

THE Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, announced government intention to create specialised tribunals for the various sectors of the economy to facilitate the operations of the system.

"We are preparing to initiate a programme to establish labour, commercial, environmental and other tribunals," he said.

Nana Akufo-Addo was answering a question at a luncheon organised by the Ghana Chamber of Mines (GCM) to expose players in that sector to reforms in the legal regime of the mining industry.

He said the Attorney-General's Department believed that specialisation of the legal system was a sure way to facilitate its operations.

Nana Akufo-Addo said as part of measures to ensure strict enforcement of environmental laws for instance, the A-G's Department will next year establish an environmental desk to closely monitor and suggest necessary reforms to the environmental laws.

The mining laws were also currently under review and the Law Reform Commission and the Ministry of Mines in collaboration with the GCM were involved in the review process.

"Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) concerned with mining and the environment, mining communities and the general public will be given the chance to make inputs on completion of the first draft of the new mining law," he said.

Nana Akufo-Addo said recent events in the mining industry required that such reforms should be undertaken to ensure local and foreign investor confidence in the industry.

"The time has come for the application of appropriate policies and laws to stimulate direct indigenous and foreign investment into the mining sector, especially gold, which accounts for 85 per cent of our mineral revenue," he said.

Nana Akufo-Addo, also MP for Abuakwa, said the government had identified three potential investors in bauxite mining in the Abuakwa State and efforts were being made to provide the needed support to make their operations a reality.

He said measures were also in place to take a critical look at the activities of NGOs against the background of regulations on their operations.

Nana Akufo-Addo said most NGOs in the country arrogated to themselves roles and functions, which belonged to the government and in the process created problems for the government.

He said government was taking a critical look at the legal regime of NGOs activities to determine the legal boundaries within which they must operate and to ensure that they remained and became firm within those boundaries.

"This, we believe, will spare us some of the nightmares NGOs create for us."