[{"bbox": [96, 153, 1135, 313], "category": "Text", "text": "case tracking system for criminal justice institutions under a joint task force headed by the Judiciary. The system was developed in 2018, piloted in 2019 and rolled out to seven of Ghana's 16 Regions in 2020 before the project came to an end in January 2021. A grant was provided to the Legal Resources Centre¹⁷ to monitor whether the system is being used and to advocate for institutions to use the system until the end of May 2022. USAID has no plans to continue to support the case tracking system but does plan to focus on accountability institutions, such as the Ghana Audit Service under its new Country Development Cooperation Strategy 2023-2025."}, {"bbox": [85, 339, 341, 370], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [96, 385, 1135, 599], "category": "Text", "text": "**Problem analysis:** Despite a well-developed legal framework and multiple institutions established to investigate and prosecute corruption, few cases make it to court, those that are prosecuted take lengthy periods to finalise, and conviction rates are low. Institutions have partially overlapping mandates and coordination and cooperation between actors in the criminal justice chain, while improving, needs to be strengthened to ensure enhanced ability to tackle corruption, increased accountability and transparency of institutions, and greater compliance with the rule of law. Enhancing the independence of accountability bodies and the separation of powers remains on the Government's agenda, despite some challenges in strengthening the constitutional and legislative frameworks."}, {"bbox": [96, 626, 1135, 917], "category": "Text", "text": "Digitalisation of court processes is a priority of the Government of Ghana's 'e-Transform Programme'.¹⁸ Focused on civil proceedings but also covering filing of relevant documents during criminal trials, digitalisation helps to prevent corruption by reducing opportunities for corruption (such as overcharging for filing of documents or bribes to court officials to speed up or delay cases). The Judiciary has successfully digitalised the 'superior courts' (High Courts, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court) while processes within the 'lower courts' (District Courts and Circuit Courts) remain paper based. However a differentiation should be done on the level of jurisdiction. The criminal jurisdiction of District Courts is limited to cases where the maximum period of imprisonment is two years, whereas Circuit Courts may deal with any criminal cases other than treason or offences punishable by death. Recent amendments to the law on corruption¹⁹ reclassify corruption as a felony with a possible sentence of 12-25 years, which means that only Circuit Courts and the High Court have sufficient criminal jurisdiction to hear such cases as courts of first instance."}, {"bbox": [96, 945, 1135, 1184], "category": "Text", "text": "The digitalisation will coexist with the paper process allowing access to those with limited access to technology, older people and the like who are still able to file relevant pleadings and documents in person at courts. Digitalisation helps to speed up processes and increase efficiency in Courts generally and allow for both civil and criminal cases to be dealt with and finalised expeditiously. The investigations will be carried out in full compliance with the Data Protection Act of 2012.²⁰ A system to create a digital criminal case management system to link key institutions in the criminal justice chain, funded by USAID, has been successfully developed and implemented in seven of Ghana's 16 Regions but needs to be upgraded and rolled out, with the OSP still to be added to the system and linkages with two Offices falling under the Attorney-General (Directorate of Public Prosecutions and Office of the Solicitor-General) needing to be enhanced."}, {"bbox": [96, 1211, 1135, 1397], "category": "Text", "text": "High Courts, Financial and Economic Crimes Courts (already digitalised), established at the High Court level in Accra and Kumasi, and the Circuit Courts deal with criminal cases of corruption but need to be strengthened in this regard. Prosecutors within the Circuit Courts, provided by the Ghana Police Service, are trained on general prosecution skills, but require additional training on prosecuting corruption to increase their effectiveness. And while High Court Judges have been trained to deal with corruption related cases under previous EU support²¹, new Judges and State Prosecutors (drawn from the Office of the Attorney-General to prosecute in the High Court) would need training, including on the changes to the law."}, {"bbox": [85, 1490, 857, 1514], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁷ Legal Resources Centre is a national NGO focused primarily on human rights (https://lrcghana.org/)."}, {"bbox": [85, 1513, 1144, 1580], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁸ As noted by Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, in April 2022, government's digitalisation drive is not only ensuring efficient delivery of public services, it is also contributing significantly to the fight against corruption by reducing human contact in public service delivery to minimise the risk of bribery and corruption in the system."}, {"bbox": [85, 1580, 522, 1601], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁹ Criminal Offences (Amendment) Act, 2020 (Act 1034)."}, {"bbox": [85, 1602, 938, 1625], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²⁰ Act 843. The Judicial Service is registered with the Data Protection Commission of Ghana as a Data Controller."}, {"bbox": [85, 1624, 635, 1645], "category": "Footnote", "text": "²¹ Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-corruption Programme (ARAP)."}, {"bbox": [1038, 1681, 1144, 1705], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 7 of 28"}]