A COALITION of forensic and justice-sector experts has called for the establishment of a National Forensic Science Regulator, warning that the absence of a unified oversight body poses serious risks to fair trials, national security and public confidence in Ghana's justice system.
The experts said although the country had capable forensic institutions, the ecosystem remained fragmented, inconsistently regulated and structurally vulnerable.
Speaking to The Ghanaian Times in a telephone interview, a forensic science expert, Dr Lawrence Kofi Acheampong, said the call had become more urgent in light of increasingly complex evidentiary demands before the courts and the emergence of sophisticated criminal networks confronting security agencies.
He argued that Ghana could not fully modernise its justice system while forensic science continued to operate without statutory oversight.
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"Disparities in procedures across institutions, inconsistent expert testimony, weak chain-of-custody systems and the absence of legal protection for sensitive DNA and biometric data all point to an urgent need for reform," he said.
Dr Acheampong stressed that these challenges were not a reflection of poor professionalism within forensic institutions, but rather the lack of a unified governance framework to ensure scientific integrity, accountability and consistency.
He explained that Ghana currently relied on a wide range of institutions for forensic services, including the Ghana Police Service Forensic Science Laboratory, pathology and clinical departments in teaching hospitals, digital forensic units within security agencies, as well as private and academic laboratories.
However, he noted that each of these bodies operated under its own mandate, with no overarching statutory standards binding the entire system.
"While forensic pathology and clinical forensics are regulated under Ghana's medical framework, core forensic science disciplines such as DNA profiling, fingerprints, toxicology, ballistics, trace evidence, document examination and digital forensics fall outside existing regulatory systems," he said.
According to him, this governance gap represents a structural weakness that threatens both justice delivery and the rights of citizens.
To demonstrate what a workable reform could look like, Dr Acheampong cited Zambia's National Forensic Act No. 2 of 2020, which established a National Forensic Science Regulator under the ministry responsible for home affairs.
He said Zambia had previously faced similar fragmentation, but its reforms created a regulatory authority that sets standards, licenses forensic service providers, enforces ethical and scientific guidelines and applies sanctions for the misuse of forensic information.
"Importantly, the regulator governs and oversees; it does not perform operational forensic work," he explained.
Dr Acheampong said Ghana stood to gain significantly from adopting a similar model, noting that uniform scientific standards would strengthen judicial outcomes by reducing courtroom disputes and ensuring that forensic evidence presented before judges was reliable and defensible.
He added that the reform also had serious national security implications, as modern threats such as cybercrime, terrorism, organised crime, money laundering and human trafficking increasingly depended on forensic intelligence.
He proposed that placing the regulator under the Ministry of the Interior would ensure proper executive oversight while preserving the technical independence required for scientific credibility.
"This arrangement would also safeguard citizens' rights by establishing clear legal protections for the handling of DNA profiles, biometric information and digital traces," he said.
Addressing concerns about possible bureaucratic bottlenecks, Dr Acheampong emphasised that forensic regulation was not about creating new layers of bureaucracy.
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"It is about strengthening existing institutions, reducing duplication, improving interoperability and preventing costly evidentiary failures," he stated.
He noted that several African countries, including South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius, Botswana and Zambia, were already moving towards unified forensic governance systems, adding that Ghana had the institutional capacity and legal sophistication to implement similar reforms.
Dr Acheampong said justice sector reform would remain incomplete without the establishment of a National Forensic Science Regulator and called for immediate action.
He therefore urged Parliament to pass the necessary enabling legislation, called on the Executive to prioritise the regulator as a national security and justice imperative, and appealed to the Judiciary to support the development of national forensic standards to enhance adjudication and uphold constitutional guarantees.
