The Supreme Court of Judicature (SCJ) has refuted an article published in the Kaieteur News about alleged shortcomings in the Court’s Information and Technology (IT) Department.
According to a SCJ release, it noted the appearance of an article in the Kaieteur News of February 3, 2020 captioned “Digital court registry crashes… No back-up system available.”
The Judiciary said that the title, content and conclusions arrived at in the article are incorrect. “It is unfortunate that the journalist responsible did not seek a comment from the Registrar of the Supreme Court or the Protocol and Communications Unit before going to print.”
The release explained that the SCJ’s IT department has been continuously engaged in maintaining and updating its servers to improve and preserve the Court’s electronic database and infrastructure. It acknowledged that sometime in late November, 2019, a technical difficulty was experienced which has caused a temporary interruption in access to its electronic database. However, that event, the SCJ says, should not be equated to the Court’s digital systems having crashed. It noted that its data entry and current electronic file uploads continue on a daily basis as work continues to resolve the issue of access, adding that the database is also secure and progress has been made with a view to accessing it.
The Supreme Court assures all court users that its Registry is fully operational and that meanwhile, a system has been put in place to facilitate manual access by court users to public records in its custody. Any person who requires such assistance may submit the case reference numbers and years and any other relevant information to the counter-clerks in the Registry.
Further, the Supreme Court has also advised that the digital recording and transcription services of the Courts outfitted with digital recording equipment are not affected by this technical difficulty.
