Moves to complete Police housing project

Page 31: Daily Graphic, January 19, 2010.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE government has set aside GH¢5.4 million for the completion of 38 of uncompleted housing units to house 570 police personnel across the country.
The completion of the 38 housing units would add to ongoing projects started last year to increase the stock of housing units for the Ghana Police Service.
The move will pave way for the Police Administration to review its suspension on recruitment into the Ghana Police Service by the middle of the year.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Paul Tawiah Quaye, told the Daily Graphic that it was only after the review that persons seeking recruitment into the police would know whether or not there would be enlistment.
He said it was expected that by the time the review was also done, the Police Administration would have dealt with most outstanding issues at the police barracks throughout the country, especially sending all wards of police personnel who were above 18 years and squatters out of the barracks.
He said besides the 38 housing units to be completed, there were a number of ongoing projects which were expected to be completed to increase the stock of housing units to accommodate personnel.
The Police Administration last year suspended the enlistment of persons into the Ghana Police Service because of inadequate housing facilities.
As of June last year, the police estimated that it required GH¢987.98 million to solve both its acute residential and office accommodation problems by 2011.
With more than 80 of its residential projects at different locations abandoned, about 58 per cent of the nearly 25,000 personnel are without decent accommodation, with most of them housed in “makeshift facilities” such as canteens, open workshops, kitchens and uncompleted structures.
An audit carried out in 2007 by the Ghana Audit Service (GAS) on the management of residential accommodation of the Ghana Police Service indicated that the complexity of the housing problem was a major reason for the low morale among the personnel, whose responsibility it is to maintain internal security.
It said there was a backlog of about 7,000 personnel waiting to be accommodated since 2006, while rooms measuring 16 square metres were allocated for use by two police families.
Mr Quaye said Police Service Regulations provided that wards of personnel above 18 years must not stay at the barracks.
He said the Police Administration was also exploring the feasibility of sending all non-uniform personnel to rent apartments in communities.
He, however, said the basic challenge there was the 20 per cent allowance of the salaries of personnel allocated for accommodation, which might not be adequate for personnel to get decent accommodation.
He said the Police Administration was determined to make the visibility of police to be felt all over the country, as their presence could deter crime
Mr Quaye, however, said the Police Administration was convinced that police efficiency did not refer to numbers but the competence of the personnel to deal with situations that confronted them in their day-to-day duties.
He said achieving that competence would be through training and re-training, infusion and use of electronic data, creation of criminal database, profiling of criminals and finger print analysis.
“When you have all these in place, one should be talking of efficiency.”
On tent cities, he said, the programme had taken off successfully except that the Police Administration was confronted with the challenge of men, communication gadgets and vehicle.
He said the absence of equipment had greatly hindered the expansion drive of the tent cities.
He reminded the public not to see the tent cities as a substitute for Police Stations and, therefore, called on District Assemblies and traditional authorities to support the Police Administration in the construction of permanent office and residential accommodation in their areas.
He said the response from some Regional Security Councils had been encouraging and mentioned the Eastern, Greater Accra and Central regions as giving positive signals.