Government is determined to take the fight against corruption another notch by employing various techniques, including the building of anti-corruption systems and greater application of technology, Vice President Bawumia has indicated.
Speaking in Accra on Monday, 9th December 2019, Vice President Bawumia outlined the benefits of Government’s Digitisation agenda in the fight against corruption, emphasising that “We are putting in place digital systems to reduce the opportunities for corruption. Such measures are beginning to yield positive fruits, and we are confident that this is the way to go.”
The Vice President, who was speaking at the closing ceremony of this year’s Anti-Corruption and Transparency Week, continued:
“One of the areas that we have focused on in the last few years in the fight against corruption has been in introducing digitisation in a lot of the public sector. This is really very important, because one of the problems that we have had in our country, and in many developing countries, is the problem of a highly informal society. When you have a highly informal society, you have the thriving of informal ways of doing things; the thriving of corrupt ways of executing transactions, because there is no transparency when you have informality which is clouding everything that you do.
“And so one of our major initiatives that we are driving in the public sector, is digitisation. And by digitisation, what you are doing is essentially reducing the human interface between the public and those who deliver government services… The technologies are going to disrupt corruption. When we talk about digitisation, we are talking about disrupting corruption, so that you look at systems that will be disruptive of corruption and introduce transparency.
“With digitisation, what you are trying to do is stop corruption ex-ante rather than deal with it ex-post (before the fact and not after the fact).
“The digitization agenda, which includes the National Identification System, Digital Postal Address System, Paperless Port Systems, E-Justice Systems, pensions and insurance data, digitized land registry and Mobile Money Interoperability System, will together enhance transparency and accountability and improve the efficiency of many government agencies in terms of service delivery and ultimately help to prevent and eliminate corruption.”
Meanwhile, the Chief Justice, Justice Sophia A. B. Akuffo, has lauded the government’s infusion of technology into the nation’s justice delivery system, saying it will eliminate a lot of corruption in the courts.
In a speech read on her behalf by Justice Clemence J. Honyenuga, a Justice of the Court of Appeal, the Chief Justice said not only will the digitisation of the courts under the E-Justice project reduce if not completely eradicate the canker, but it will also speed up the delivery of justice and ensure equity.
“As already mentioned, there is also underway the Electronic Case Management System, the E-Justice, to reduce corruption. The E-justice system, dubbed ‘Paperless courts’, is aimed at achieving a paperless economic, social and legal environment… and is aimed at automation and digitisation of the judicial processes. Its full implementation will bring to closure, the manual filing of processes and its attendant breeding of corruption that is inimical to justice delivery. It is currently being implemented in the courts Accra, to be expanded to the regions from 2020 onwards.
“Further, the introduction of the Ghana Case Tracking System is aimed at addressing the challenges facing the justice delivery system to support key stakeholders to collect, collate and harmonise statistical data for effective justice delivery. This is to boost the robustness of the judicial processes. All the stakeholders in the criminal justice system are part of this system which is being implemented throughout the country. It is expected to be inaugurated in the early part of 2020.
“Finally the electronic case distribution system, which is aimed at distributing cases to judges electronically has been extended to all Superior courts and Circuit courts throughout the country. This is to ensure fair, transparent and equitable distribution of cases to avoid favour, bias and corruption.”
The judiciary and staff, Chief Justice Akuffo pledged, “are ready to deal with corruption wherever or whenever it is found.”