The Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Wood, has stated that the integrity of the Judiciary will not be compromised or negotiated.

Consequently, she said adequate mechanisms were being put in place to redeem the image of the Judiciary from some of the negative perceptions associated with it, such as corruption.

Mrs Justice Wood stated this to the Daily Graphic at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) where she is undergoing orientation on managerial skills.

She said she would work hard to restore public confidence in the Judiciary by ensuring that the service delivered effectively and efficiently to the expectation of the public.

She observed that corruption was endemic in the lower administrative staff of the service and said training programmes were being designed to help build their capacity to stop such practices.

The Chief Justice said her administration would also enforce discipline, stressing that any member of staff who fell foul of the law would be dealt with accordingly.

She said with the introduction of the automation of the courts, it was expected that corruption would reduce to the minimum.

She gave the assurance that the automation would be extended to all the regions to enable client pay their filling fees and fines directly through the HFC Bank.

Mrs Justice Wood explained that the system was being designed in a manner that no member of staff of the Judicial Service would handle cash.

She said the Public Complaints Unit of the Service would be further strengthened to receive complaints on matters concerning the Judiciary for quick action.

The Chief Justice advised members of the public to report any acts of corruption and misconduct on the part of any member of the Judiciary to the unit as their contribution to help redeem the image of the Service.

She said she was not out to make a name for herself but for the country and called on the public to help her to achieve that.

Mrs Justice Wood commended the authorities of GIMPA for the orientation course and said the lessons learnt would go a long way to help her perform better as the Chief Executive Officer of the Judicial Service.

The Rector of GIMPA, Prof Stephen Adei, said there were three characteristics that a good leader must always possess, explaining that a good leader should have a good character to enable him or her to maintain credibility in the discharge of his or her work.

A good leader should also be competent enough to undertake the task for which he or she had been assigned and be able to demonstrate care or establish a cordial relationship with his subjects, he said, adding that the relationship should be such that the leader would be seen to have concern for all and not for himself or herself only.

He noted that anybody who moved from a technical position to a management position needed some orientation, saying that that type of orientation in such transitions should have been the norm but, unfortunately, it had not been so in the country.


Culled from Daily Graphic