A concerned Ghanaian, Abigail Adams,
through her solicitors, has filed a writ at the Supreme Court invoking
the ‘Original Jurisdiction’ of the court to force President John Evans
Atta Mills to order...
...the payment of all outstanding monies owed the Judicial Service of Ghana within 14 days, or possibly be impeached.
The suit was filed by her solicitors, Nkrabea and Associates, on Friday May 11, 2012.
This
suit followed the recent string of confrontations between the Judicial
Service staff and government over the latter’s continuous refusal to pay
subventions to the former to undertake its operations.
DAILY
GUIDE gathered that government subventions had not been paid to the
service since the beginning of the year, raising questions about
deliberate attempts of stifling the judiciary.
The suit seeks
“Funds voted by Parliament or charged on the Consolidated Fund by this
Constitution [Article 127(6) for the benefit of the judiciary and to
secure its effective running shall be released for the judiciary in
quarterly basis, that is at the beginning of every quarter.”
Last week, the Judicial Service Staff
Association of Ghana (JUSAG) staged a rare demonstration, donning red
arm bands to signify its anguish.
According to the Chairman of
the Interim Management Committee of JUSAG, Francis Brakwa, the
demonstration was the first signal to government about the group’s
dissatisfaction after failing to honour two ultimatums – April 30, 2012
and May 4, 2012, issued to the government.
Recently, JUSAG issued
a statement saying that the non-payment of the subventions had
occasioned a lot of unease in the entire workforce of the Service,
leading to threats of strike.
The JUSAG’s strike threat was
called off last week and according to Francis Brakwa, the decision was
based on recent hints of payment of their subventions by government.
The
service claimed that the government’s failure to pay the subvention, as
stipulated, had a negative impact on the operation of the judicial
service and was causing agitations within the entire membership.
Some
judicial service workers told DAILY GUIDE that they had been forced to
occasionally bring items such as printers and A4 papers from their homes
to do office work.
Critics say the strange phenomenon has a serious implication on the quality of judicial representation in Ghana.
Nkrabeah
and Associates claimed the non-payment was a serious violation of the
Constitution that could attract impeachment proceedings against the
President. “The Violation of Article 127(6) of the Constitution by the
President, Prof. Evans Atta-Mills, is an impeachable conduct in terms of
Article 69(1) (a) of the Constitution,” stated the writ.
“The
President of Ghana, Prof. Evans Fiifi Atta-Mills, having failed, refused
and or neglected to release the funds voted by Parliament for the
Judiciary for the first quarter, January 2012, is in breach of Article
127 (6) of the Constitution,” it added.
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| Source: Daily Guide |
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