The Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana (AMJG) has called on the Controller and Accountant General to release all outstanding allowances.
They lament the government’s failure to increase these allowances for over four years and urge timely action to avoid potential legal action.
His Lordship Justice Henry Anthony Kwofie, President of AMJG, who described the legal action as the last resort to address their grievances, said the association had been pushed to the wall and the time had come for them to use judicial means to recover their allowances.
His Lordship Justice Henry Kwofie was speaking at Speaking at the Annual Conference of the Association of Magistrate and Judges of Ghana, in Accra
According to the AMJG President, all public officials who used official vehicles are given fuel by government but expressed regret that judges had to buy fuel for their official vehicles.
“We have not received salary increase for the past two years but fuel prices have been increased within the period under review at over 200 per cent,” he said, and described the situation as ‘ realistic.’
“The tradition has been that judges did not express opinion on their legitimate demands but it is time for them to make lawful demands,” he declared.
The President of AMJG also decried the unfair treatment meted out to retired judges by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD).
On other matters, His Lordship Justice Henry Kwofie complained about what he described as ‘injustice and embarrassment’ being meted out to the legal fraternity by the national book publishers, notably the Ghana Publishing and the Assembly Press.
He said some laws of the country had been revised and consolidated but the two press houses continue to sell out to the public unrevised laws.
“The laws sold out by the Assembly Press as the current laws do not represent the present state of the law,” he explained.
He, therefore, tasked the Ministry responsible for the media houses as a matter of urgency to ensure that they sold the current laws, saying, ‘they cannot continue to sell repealed and unconsolidated laws to deceive the public.’