NACOB needs permanent staff — Aning

Page 34: February 7, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
AN expert in narcotics, Dr Kwesi Aning, has called on the government not to second personnel of any agency to the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) again.
He said the issue of seconding personnel from other agencies to the NACOB had impacted negatively on the performance of the national drug agency.
Dr Aning, who is also the Head of Conflict Prevention Management and Resolution Department (CPMRD) of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, told the Daily Graphic on Wednesday that the government needed to recruit competent persons on full-time basis and give them the requisite training to enable them to deliver.
He said the present situation where key positions were occupied by staff on secondment from other agencies did not augur well for total commitment in the fight against drugs.
According to him, such staff owed their allegiances to their parent institutions and, therefore, did not see themselves as part of NACOB and feared to do anything that might jeopardise their positions and also bring the name of their parent institutions into disrepute.
He said the problem of leaking information to parent organisations and individuals and that of handling of suspects and exhibits were all issues that seconded staff could not be trusted with.
Dr Aning said there were numerous instances where seconded staff had to start afresh to learn the workings of the organisations and settling down for business often took time.
He said the present situation was also not motivating enough for staff of NACOB to work hard to be rewarded with promotion to the top.
Dr Aning said staff of NACOB should rather be sent to the other agencies as focal persons for the NACOB.
He explained that it would then be the duty of such focal persons to gather intelligence for analysis by NACOB.
Dr Aning said in situations where personnel of any agency were to be sent to NACOB for whatever reason, such staff must be made to resign from their parent organisations, stressing that “people working at NACOB should have a 100 per cent allegiance to the organisation”.
He indicated that in Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone, their drug controlling agencies were adequately resourced with both personnel and logistics to undertake their own investigations, forensic laboratories for testing of drugs and prosecution units to deal with cases.
He also called for the adequate resourcing of NACOB and incentives for the staff to give of their best.
He explained that it was the inadequacy of resources and lack of motivation for staff that the drug dealers capitalised on to infiltrate the security agencies and other public institutions to corrupt the system.
According to Dr Aning, although experts had called for the raising of the status of NACOB into a commission, which he agreed with, it was also important that it was adequately resourced.