The Chief Justice (CJ), Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, has committed the Judiciary to respect for time as he launched the Punctuality Signages Court Branding Project.

The project - an initiative of the Punctuality Ghana Foundation, an NGO founded by crusader Mr Emmanuel Amarquaye - is working to inculcate the habit of respect for time among Judicial Service staff and the Ghanaian populace.

“As the saying goes, justice delayed is justice denied.

The implication of this is that justice depends on our officers showing up at work early and getting their duties done with the necessary dispatch,” the Chief Justice said at the launch.

“I want to assure leaders and members of the Punctuality Ghana Foundation that we remain absolutely committed to the goals of this campaign on punctuality and productivity, and that the service retains a zero-tolerance approach to lateness of any kind,” he warned.

Lateness culture

The Chief Justice expressed concern that it had become typical for Ghanaians to arrive unfashionably late for events, whether social or professional.

“There can be little argument about the punctuality deficit that we have in our country today.

We are late for school, we are late for work, and we are late to our own weddings.

And as a joke, some of us would even be late to heaven,” he said to laughter from attendees.

Justice Anin Yeboah noted that millions of productive hours were lost every day in both the public and private sectors because of disrespect for time, stressing that this was having a negative impact on productivity.

“It is not uncommon for some to saunter into work several hours late, to meet people and work piled and in need of immediate attention,” he observed.

Respect for time

Lead Punctuality Crusader, Mr Amarquaye, said the public service could not effectively complement the private sector to accelerate the development of the country without respect for time.

He called for investment in technology such as monitoring cameras in offices and electronic clocking in systems to address the poor attitude towards work and the lack of respect for time.

He disclosed that the Punctuality Ghana Foundation would soon roll out projects - including state-of-the-art management of attendance and correspondence - to support the public service to deal with non-punctuality to minimise poor work attitudes.