CJ Warns Public Against Fraudulent Characters ( DAILY GRAPHIC , Wed March 30th 2011) CENTER SPREAD

Story: Della Russel Ocloo

The Chief Justice (CJ), Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, has cautioned the public to be wary of fraudulent men and women who hang around court premises to prey on litigants.
She said the Judicial Service had put in place a well-functioning complaints unit to ward off illegitimate demands by people in justice administration, such as the demand for inducement fees which, apart from compromising the integrity of the service, also goes to defraud unsuspecting litigants of justice.
“Feel free to use this channel so your legitimate and evidence-based complaints can be addressed satisfactorily,” she advised litigants.
She also called for the enforcement of regulations on the wearing of identification tags and prescribed uniforms supplied at the cost of the service towards warding off all forms of indiscipline that had plagued the service.
Justice Wood sounded the caution at the inauguration of the Ethics and Integrity committees for the Judiciary and the Judicial Service.
The two committees, which have been set up as peer review and self-policing ones, are part of new measures intended to safeguard integrity to conform with new codes of conduct for the Judiciary and the Judicial Service.
The Ethics Committee’s work, which encompasses advocacy for strengthening judicial integrity and enforcing the code of conduct for judges to make them more accountable, is chaired by the CJ herself, with Justice Julius Baah, a representative of the Supreme Court, as its Executive Secretary. Other members are Justice J.B. Akamba, Justice Mariam Owusu, Justice Olivia Obeng-Owusu, Justice Ali Baba Bature and Justice Gifty Dekyem.
The committee will also work to entrench the principles of integrity to safeguard the highest ethical and professional standards in the service.
The Integrity Committee, on the other hand, which will establish a link between acceptable judicial conduct and the punishment that will be meted out to those who flout national laws and codes of conduct, is chaired by the CJ’s nominee, Justice Professor S.K. Date-Baah, with Justice Abdulai Iddrisu, Mrs Dorothy Kingsley-Nyinah, Gloria Ocansey and John Bannerman as members. The Judicial Secretary, Justice Alex Opoku Acheampong, is its Executive Secretary.
Justice Wood said corruption charges, although more of perception than reality, were still damaging to the public image of the service.
“It is in this light that we must bear responsibility in ensuring the reversal of the trend while working to secure trust and credibility among the justice seeking populace,” she stated.
A Supreme Court judge, Justice William Atuguba, who inaugurated the committees, urged the members to work assiduously, while maintaining their loyalty to God and the country, as its long-suffering people deserved a Judiciary that administered justice in a timely and efficient manner.
Earlier in his welcoming address, Justice Joseph Akamba, an Appeal Court judge, said a good Judiciary was one that the people could place their trust and confidence in.
He bemoaned a recent corruption/integrity survey by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) that placed the Judicial Service second and called for strategies that would go to reduce that public perception.