The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has inaugurated nine members of the Legal Service Board to spearhead an efficient, reputable and well-motivated legal service sector in the country.
The board has Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, the Attorney-General, as its chairman, the Deputy Attorney General, Alfred Tuah-Yeboah and Ms Diana Asonaba Dapaah.
Others include Ms Helen Akpene Awo Ziwu, the Solicitor-General; Justice Jones Victor Mawulorm Dotse, Supreme Court of Ghana; Dr Janet Ampadu Fofie, Chairperson of the Public Services Commission; Mr Kwaku Gyau, representative of the Ghana Bar Association; Mr Daniel Kwaku Tweneboah Asirifi; and Mrs Sylvia Assimeng Archer, both the presidential nominees to the board.
Vice President Bawumia, said the presidency was anticipating receiving the advice of the board on matters on the legal service structure and conduct — particularly in relation to recruitment, appointment, promotion, discipline, dismissal and any other conditions of service for officers of the service.
“Ghana cannot afford to have a legal service that is made up of people whose competence and diligence to work are in doubt. As a member of the comity of nations, we must always be above our peers when it comes to the provision of legal services for the State,” he stated.
Dr Bawumia said, “having a competent workforce will have a positive multiplier effect on other sectors of our political economy.”
The Vice President said he expected that the board would work together and lead the legal service in carrying out its statutory responsibilities to help create and sustain, a reputable legal system to enhance speedy and affordable access to justice for the people of Ghana.
The chairman of the legal service board and Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, expressed the board’s appreciation to the Vice President and assure that it would work harder to justify the task entrusted to them by the State.
He called on the Vice President to be the lead advocate in government for the improvement of the conditions of service for the staff of the Attorney General’s department.
“Indeed, we are also mindful of the support the government has extended to us this year, especially by way of extra-budgetary support. Your inauguration of this board indeed speaks or underscores the importance that the government places on the legal service board” Godfred Dame said.
“We consider you (Vice President Bawumia) to be in it with us as you have personally inaugurated us, and we will not hesitate to call upon you and we also urge you to be our chief advocate in ensuring an improvement on the conditions of service of the office of the Attorney General,” the Attorney General Godfred Yeboah Dame added.
The legal service board per the Act that established it, legal service Act, 1993 (PNDCL 320), serves as a body required “to advise the President on the matters connected with the structure and conduct of the affairs of the Service and in particular, in relation to the recruitment, appointment, promotion, discipline, dismissal and any other conditions of service of officers in the Service.”
Rex Mainoo Yeboah, ISD