Accra, July 6, GNA - An Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Bill has been introduced to speed up conflict resolution in the country, Mr Joe Ghartey, Deputy Attorney-General, said on Wednesday.

He said this was in line with Government's policy to make the judicial system and dispute resolution fast, accessible and cheap to the populace and investors and speed up investment.

Mr Ghartey was speaking at a day's sensitisation workshop on the ADR Bill for stakeholders of the judicial system in Accra. The Deputy Minister said the ADR was not intended to change the judicial process but rather complement it to ensure a speedy resolution of conflicts.

The ADR is a form of addressing dispute by using a third person as a mediator who would not use the robe nor the gavel, but only good sense and power of persuasion.

Recounting how arbitration had been part of the country's law, he said the first of such laws was introduced in 1928 in the Arbitration Ordinance and amended in 1963 by the Arbitration Act.

"Since then this is the first time we are looking at our law to deal with arbitration, which is part of our culture," he said. Mr Justice Marful-Sau, President of the Commercial Courts, a form of Arbitration Court commissioned by the President John Agyekum Kufuor on March 4, said so far the court had been successful in its dispute resolution.

"It is only four out of 100 cases that have been referred for trail at the ordinary courts," he said, adding that it had really sped up the adjudication of cases.