The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Dr Dominic A. Ayine, has expressed concern about the high attrition rate at his office due to inadequate salaries and overwhelming workloads.

He revealed that a Principal State Attorney, a key prosecutor, was on the verge of leaving after submitting a resignation letter.

He added that despite his personal efforts to retain the attorney, including a heartfelt conversation to discuss potential solutions, the attorney cited financial obligations and a stark contrast in earnings compared to private practice as primary reasons for his departure.

Select committee

Dr Ayine was speaking when members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs paid working visits to various institutions under the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Department (MoJAGD) as part of its oversight responsibilities to advocate for the ministry’s needs in parliament for better reforms.

The institutions are the Attorney General’s Department, the Ghana School of Law, the Office of the Registrar of Companies and the Law Reforms Commission.

The committee was led by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Daboya/Mankarigu, Shaibu Mahama, who doubles as the chairperson of the committee.

“The salary he’s getting cannot sustain him and his family,” Dr Ayine lamented, emphasising the disparity between public service compensation and private sector opportunities.

He, therefore, urged the committee to advocate for increased funding to recruit and retain high-calibre lawyers to ensure the effective handling of complex legal cases.

“When we come knocking on the Minister of Finance's door for salary increases, it should not be business as usual. We need to retain qualified personnel capable of facing well-resourced private sector lawyers,” he stated. 

Legal education

At the Ghana School of Law, Nana Justice  Barima Yaw Kodie Oppong, a Court of Appeal judge who doubles as the Director of the professional law school, called for urgent reforms in legal education to enhance the quality and accessibility of professional training for aspiring lawyers.

He stressed the need for the school to have its own statutory framework, enabling it to offer both the Qualifying Certificate in Law (QCL) and the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) programmes independently.

The Acting Director of the Office of the Registrar of Companies, Maame Samar Peprah, also outlined challenges affecting the office’s productivity, which include the need to develop a new application for smooth operations, insolvency issues, poor security and inadequate staffing while the Law Reform Commission advocated for vehicles, stable internet and computers to enable the commission undertake its work effectively.