Seven agencies under Attorney General’s Department receive 91 vehicles

The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame has presented 91 vehicles to all seven agencies under his ministry to boost their transportation capacities.

The seven beneficiary state agencies are the Council for Law Reporting, Legal Aid Commission, Registrar General’s Department, Economic and Organized Crime Office, Law Reform Commission, Copyright Office and the Ghana Law School.

For most of these agencies, this is the first time in 20 years since they last received any form of logistical support for their work and activities. The delivery of the 91 vehicles constitutes the biggest supply of vehicles at a single time in the history of the Justice Ministry.

The breakdown of the 91 vehicles are as follows: 39 saloon cars, 42 Toyota pick-ups, four Toyota Fortuners, three V8 Toyota Land Cruisers, one Toyota Coaster 32-seater bus, two Toyota Hiace minibuses and one motorcycle.

Addressing a short ceremony at the State Protocol Department to commission and present the vehicles, the Attorney General noted that “the problems associated with most of the agencies under his ministry are mostly related to poor physical infrastructure, grossly insufficient budgetary allocation for the operations of the agency, lack of vehicles to facilitate the efficient movement of state attorneys and technological challenges”.

Retooling agenda

The Justice Minister however declared that he is committed to ensuring that during his term in office, the agencies under his watch will be retooled in order to make them more efficient in the discharge of their statutory duties.

“Today’s presentation of 91 vehicles follows a special appeal I made to Cabinet in June last year, in consequence of which His Excellency the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, directed the Minister for Finance to ensure a satisfaction of all the needs.

“I am happy to state that by the grace of God, the Minister for Finance approved of the release of the entire sum stated as required for a discharge of the urgent needs of our Ministry. We are profoundly grateful to His Excellency the President and the Honourable Minister for Finance,” Dame said.

“In all sincerity, to say that this fleet of vehicles will make an impact on the work of the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice will be an understatement,” the Attorney General added.

Working tour

In his address, the Attorney General indicated that he has just “concluded working visits to the head offices of various agencies under the Ministry of Justice, to ascertain at first hand the physical conditions under which they operate”.

“These visits were revealing as the hugely undesirable working environments of some agencies and the lack of basic tools for service to the nation came to the fore”.

Allocation of vehicles

According to the Attorney General, with the agencies such as the Legal Aid Commission, the institution of state playing the noble role of providing legal service for the indigent and the vulnerable in society, which at present has only six vehicles throughout the country, receiving 13 additional cars will certainly give a boost to their operations.

“The Council for Law Reporting currently has only two vehicles. Today, they will receive four more. The Law Reform Commission presently has only one vehicle – a pick-up vehicle which it acquired in 1996. Today, it will receive two new cars (one pick-up and a saloon car).

“The Copyright Office has five vehicles, the last of which they bought in 2008. Today, they receive two more. The Economic and Organised Crimes Office (EOCO) will add 13 vehicles more to their fleet,” Dame announced.

Apart from the seven agencies, the regional offices of the Office of Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice as well as the head office also received some of the vehicles.

Resource gap

Touch on the urgent need to properly resource the AG’s Department, Godfred Dame observed that “a well-oiled Attorney General’s Department is the biggest signpost for improved conditions in the practice of law”.

The industry of state attorneys he said “must be properly complemented with a supply of resources needed to assist in the discharge of their functions”.

“It is my hope that today will mark the beginning of the realization of my quest to set up a modern public legal service for our nation fully equipped to live up to its onerous constitutional and statutory duties to the Republic of Ghana” the AG said.

Digitalising the department

With the current digitisation drive ongoing in the country, the Attorney General said given that it is not possible to have a “modern legal service without a fully functional digitised working environment”, he will “take steps to obtain the requisite funding to ensure the operationalisation of an integrated information management system for the Office of Attorney-General and Ministry of Justice”.

Wilberforce Asare

Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
99.5 in Accra, 90.7 in Ho, 98.5 in Kumasi, 99.7 in Tamale, 89.5 in Tarkwa, 100.3 in Cape Coast and 106.9 in Walewale
Follow us on Twitter: @asaaseradio995
#AsaaseRadio
#TheVoiceofOurLand