The Ondo government on Friday said it had approved the establishment of Department of Legal Services in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) in the state.
This is contained in a statement by Charles Titiloye, the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, and issued to newsmen in Akure by Mr Bolu Ajijo, Director, Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Justice.
According to the commissioner, the department will be under his direct supervision, in order to enhance proper monitoring and supervision.
Titiloye explained that the new department was in line with the redeem agenda of Gov. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu.
He said that the agenda focused on efficient service delivery and policy implementation for speedy dispensation of justice in the state as well as reduction of waste in governance.
Titiloye, who commended Gov. Akeredolu for approving the creation of the new department, noted that it had become imperative for each of the MDAs to comply with the provision of laws of the government policies and activities.
According to him, the policy will help to drastically reduce unnecessary litigations, delay in filing of court processes and defence of litigations and granting of cost against the government
.
He explained that the ultimate goal for the establishment of the new department of legal services in the MDAs was to reduce judgment debts against the state government and the reduction in the cost of governance.
“This will ultimately put an end to unnecessary liability incurred by the government through grants of monetary fines by courts.
”Most often, this is caused by unnecessary delays and poor understanding of the legal implications of such inactions on the part of the MDAs, on the state and administration of justice.
“I have approved the posting of the nine most senior directors of the ministry, heads of various departments and extra ministerial agencies in the ministry to some of the MDAs, to commence the implementations of the policy.
“Those deployed will bring to bear their wealth of experiences for proper take off of the government directives in order to achieve speedy administration of justice and reduction of unnecessary cost and litigations on the state,” he said.
Titiloye said that since his appointment as the chief law officer of the state in 2020, he had introduced a lot of innovations in the activities of the Ministry of Justice, as well as in the administration of justice in the state.
He listed some of them as the creation of two new departments of Alternative Dispute Resolutions (ADR) and Civil Legal Advisory Services, as well as the introduction of car shuttles, to convey state counsel to the courts.
“This innovation was informed by the needs to solve the challenges of paucity of vehicles to convey legal officers to and from courts, which often translated to loss of man hours, delay in appearances and granting of costs,” he said. (NAN)