How far, Mr IGP?

PAGE 19: Daily Graphic, August 25, 2010.
Asks Albert K. Salia
IT IS a little over a year ago when Mr Paul Tawiah Quaye assumed the mantle of leadership of the Ghana Police Service.
At the time of his appointment, it was an incontrovertible fact as published in the May 19, 2009 issue of the Daily Graphic that patronage had become the gateway to progress in the Ghana Police Service. As a result, professional ethics, competence, efficiency and discipline seemed to have completely broken down. Morale was at its lowest ebb.
Besides those internal challenges, the Ghanaian society had to grapple with an increasing spate of armed robbery and other violent crimes which had created so much fear and panic in the system.
The challenges, which confronted Mr Quaye as the new IGP were, indeed, great and many feared that it was going to be business as usual for him. An article in the May 19, 2009 issue of the Daily Graphic had indicated that Mr Quaye could not afford to disappoint the President and the whole personnel of the service who saw him as someone to turn-around the fortunes of the service. Mr Quaye was also advised to guard against being pushed to the gutters by patronage.
The author argued that it was only a principled, disciplinarian, inspirer and fair-minded person who could command the service, particularly at this time when morale was so low and the image of the service had sunk to such disturbing depth.
At his first interaction with officers and men of the Service, Mr Quaye did not mince words as to what his mission was and what he expected from the personnel. He threw his first bombshell with the re-posting of senior personnel to other areas stressing that whatever appointment or changes he made, was in the best interest of the Service and also with the belief that the affected personnel were needed in those areas to enable them bring their strengths to bear on the Service.
Many doubted the effects of the changes but as a very proficient systems analyst with more than 18 years experience in conducting studies and recommending the re-organisation of various units and departments within the service, Mr Quaye’s key objective, as the IGP, was to work and attain the highest levels of efficiency in the Ghana Police Service.
Mr Quaye, who believes in team work, also possesses rich skills in policy formulation and planning for change with in-depth knowledge in research work and identification of organisational weaknesses and defects.
He has the ability to focus on strategic direction of an organisation, with a view to effecting and implementing realistic change management mechanisms which are aimed at meeting self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology (SMART) objectives.
Despite having all these qualities, many doubted his ability to make any positive changes in the Service, believing that saboteurs within the system and the influence of politicians would not allow him to achieve anything.
But one year on, can one say that he had made any positive impact? Certainly yes. In fact, the IGP is said to be too ambitious and wanting to leave a very good legacy before leaving office. What else should one expect from him?
Indeed, the spate of armed robbery across the country at the time of his appointment was terrible with reported cases almost every day.
In fact, not only has his administration been able to stem the tide, but the way and manner suspects have been arrested even after the offence clearly indicate that he put the right people at the right places to deliver. Without any prejudice, apart from the reward system put in place, the Deputy Accra Regional Police Commander, ACP Christian Tetteh Yohuno would, forever, be engraved in the hearts and minds of many people who have encountered him and the way he dealt with robberies and other crimes.
The ability of the police to establish a trend in robbery cases and the use of particular brand of vehicles being used in robberies alone has been heartwarming and that is worthy of commendation.
It is important to note that some planned armed robberies were also foiled even before the robberies were committed.
The time response of the police to distress calls, particularly violent crime, also reduced and that often resulted in exchange of fire between the police and the robbers.
Another area where the IGP showed great leadership was his decision to suspend the enlistment of personnel until the improvement of residential accommodation for personnel. Before the suspension, there were announcements for recruitment of new personnel but the IGP had to intervene.
Certainly, the Police Administration under the leadership of Mr Quaye has also shown that welfare for personnel was not just limited to accommodation. In fact, cases of interdiction which seemed to have been forgotten, have all been addressed with some of them re-instated, while others have been dismissed.
I believe the team at the Finance Department, headed by DCOP Dr George Dampare, appreciates the essence of motivation and the concern of the IGP to the welfare of personnel. That is why it worked hard to make sure that the Ghana Police Service was the first public institution to be enrolled on the new Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
To address the issue of patronage, the Police Administration has instituted an examination programme for all prospective candidates to the Police College to ensure that selection was based on merit. It is a good move and many Chief Inspectors, who had been ignored previously, are happy while those who expected to benefit through patronage are disappointed.
The launch of the five-year strategic plan and the establishment of marine police unit to address the challenges of the Service and the oil and gas sector, shows the visionary leadership of the IGP who does not want to be overtaken by events. His pledge of organising training/re-training programmes for personnel is being implemented to the letter. Kudos.
So far, so good for the IGP but there are still other areas which he needs to address.
First, he himself has had cause to complain about the arm-chair investigations at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), which had made many operational personnel highly frustrated. The release of suspects on remand due to the inaction of both CID personnel and prosecutors due to the lackadaisical attitude to work, must be addressed.
This leads me to the issue of the need to strengthen the work force as the CID personnel often complain about overload of work.
The Police Administration must be reminded that the Service is losing some personnel to peacekeeping, retirement and death and, therefore, needs to be replaced.