The Legal Resources Centre (LRC) has organised a sensitization workshop on the Ghana Case-Tracking System (CTS) for Civic Society Organisations (CSOs) in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital.

Ghana, in 2018 launched the first electronic Integrated Criminal Justice CTS project to support key stakeholders in the justice delivery system to collect, collate and harmonize statistical data for effective justice delivery.

The USAID supported project was to enable key actors in the justice delivery system to electronically access and track the various stages of criminal cases from the point of arrest, investigations, prosecution, conviction rehabilitation and release.

Speaking at the workshop, Mr Enock Jengre, a Rule of Law Specialist at the LRC, said civil society's oversight and watchdog role was needed to ensure that the system was used with effective coordination among stakeholder institutions

He noted that the involvement of CSOs would institutionalize and sustain the effective implementation of the CTS across the justice delivery institutions and the project, which was captioned; "USAID Justice Sector Support Activity" was implemented in 40 targeted Districts in seven Regions, including the Volta, Greater Accra, Northern, Western, Upper East, Ashanti and Bono Regions.

He said it was aimed at ensuring that marginalized communities through mobilization and innovative public educative programmes were aware of the project and to support track the progress of the CTS delivery.

Mr Samuel Fant Kombian, the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Specialist of the LRC, who gave a background of the CTS and its importance to justice delivery, said the CTS was an integrated software designed to track criminal cases from inception to the end.

He explained that "When the case is reported at the Police station, they are expected to key it into the system, depending on the severity of the case, it is forwarded to the Attorney-General (AG) for advise."

He said if it was within the jurisdiction of the AG to prosecute the case, it was sent to court, where the case was heard, "The proceedings go on and the case is finally determined. This is how the process is, and this process has been transposed from the manual into the digital system using IT.

"Now from the police to the point that the suspect goes to prison, it has all been digitised to digital system," Mr Kombian said.

He said the digital process would fast-track the justice delivery process, "Now from the police, officers do not need to travel to court, may be from the District to the Regional Court, if the person is going to a High Court.

"At the click of a button, an officer sends a case from his station to the court. Another thing we stand to benefit if we are using the CTS is the fact that it helps us to have statistical data of criminal cases, and that is how we are able to track and make decisions out of these cases to help stakeholders plan well."

He said for instance that if they tracked the cases in the system and realised murder cases were many, it would assist stakeholders to effectively plan and make decisions to curb it, adding that it would improve coordination among the justice sector institutions.

A participant from CAMFED Ghana, Madam Amina Alem Osman told the Ghana News Agency after the workshop that she was impressed with the CTS implemented by the LRC and its partners.

"We are doing less paper work and we are moving fast into the world of technology, I am impressed to know that within the justice delivery system, they are using technology to coordinate activities," she said.