The Finance Ministry has denied not paying the judiciary its budgetary allocations over the past year.
The Ghana Bar Association in a strongly worded statement last week lamented the poor conditions of courts across the country and the adverse effect on administrative justice across the country.
The Bar Association also called on President Mahama to quickly release funds meant to be the judiciary’s budgetary allocation which has been unpaid for over a year.
But the Finance Ministry in a statement released on Monday denied these claims.
‘We wish to state that the Ministry is not in arrears for a year now as stated. An amount of GH¢15,278,014 has been released to the service as at June 2014,’ the statement said.
It said the Ministry is currently processing the subvention for the second quarter.
‘We wish the Ghana Bar Association would in future contact the Judicial Service or the Ministry of Finance before going public on such a sensitive issue.’
Below is the statement
RELEASE OF FUNDS FOR THE JUDICIAL SERVICE
The Ministry of Finance has noted with concern a statement from the Ghana Bar Association, published in various media that the Ministry had not released subvention to the Judicial Service for about a year now leading to the suspension of services in some areas.
2. We wish to state that the Ministry is not in arrears for a year now as stated. An amount of GH¢15,278,014 has been released to the service as at June 2014. The breakdown is as follows;
Compensation related allowances GH¢8,167,531.60
Goods and Services GH¢6,904,330.30
Assets GH¢206, 182.40
Total GH¢15,278,044.30
3. The Ministry is currently processing the subvention for the second quarter release. We wish to reiterate that it is incorrect the Ministry had not released subvention to the Judicial Service for the past year. We also want to state that, the use of 15% of their Internally Generated Funds by the Service was approved by Parliament. It is only Parliament that can review such a policy.
4. We wish the Ghana Bar Association would in future contact the Judicial Service or the Ministry of Finance before going public on such a sensitive issue.
ISSUED BY THE PUBLIC RE TIONS UNIT MINISTRY OF FINANCE
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