OSIWA grant helps Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Justice transform Law Officers’ Department
Attorney General and Minister of Justice Franklyn Bai Kargbo said “the grant funds will be used for the procurement of equipment and services that will facilitate the transformation within the Law Officers’ Department of case and file management and general archiving from manual to computerised system.”
Joe Hindovei Pemagbi, Country Officer for OSIWA said he “believes that the project will help to promote the effective and speedy delivery of justice rather than spending time sieving through documents.”
Attorney General and Minister of Justice Franklyn Bai Kargbo hailed OSIWA’s “strategic focus on the justice sector as an extremely important thematic area that requires support for the sustenance of peace and law and order.”
Solicitor General Martina Kroma emphasized that “automation of the records and processes of the Law Officers’ Department will enhance efficiency in the Department and provide security for documents and records in the Department.”
These records include, legal advice given to Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, treaties, contracts, Memoranda of Understanding, Acts of Parliament and case files on criminal prosecutions.
Kroma noted that “the highly confidential nature of some of those documents demand that they be kept in a very safe and secure environment where access will be available to only limited authorized personnel.”
OSIWA’s support to the Law Officers’ Department project will implement integrated technologies. These include an email system, an intranet and a document imaging and archiving system, all with the overall objective of improving the security of sensitive documents and increase the efficiency of records management.
The Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) is part of a network of Foundations established and supported by philanthropist George Soros. The Foundation currently supports several national organizations and coalitions such as National Elections Watch (NEW), Independent Radio Network (IRN) and Pampana Communications among others. OSIWA envisions a prospering region where open society values prevail; a more integrated West Africa with a thriving democratic culture and where a vigilant citizenry enjoy basic freedoms and participate meaningfully in civic and political life, inequalities and inequities are minimized, exclusion gives way to greater appreciation for pluralism, and governments are accountable and corruption is on the wane.
For more information, please contact:
Joe Pemagbi, OSIWA’s Sierra Leone Country Officer; Tel: +232 78 164 864; Email: jpemagbi@osiwa.org
Sophie Ly Sow, OSIWA’s Communications Officer; Tel: +221 33 869 1024/26; Email: slysow@osiwa.org