Enlistment into Police Service temporarily suspended — Avoka

Page 17, July 7, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

THE Minister of Interior, Mr Cletus Avoka has given the assurance that enlistment into the Ghana Police Service has only been temporarily suspended and not cancelled.
He said the Police Administration had put its plans of recruiting more personnel on hold, in order to avoid compounding an already precarious situation of accommodation facing the service.
Mr Avoka said this when he appeared before Parliament yesterday to answer questions posed by Members of Parliament (MPs) on his ministry.
The MP for Bawku Central, Mr Adamu Dramani-Sakande had asked the minister about the status of the enlistment process of over 7,000 persons who had been shortlisted for screening into the Ghana Police Service this year.
Mr Avoka explained that the Police Service issued a public statement on June 12, 2009 to suspend enlistment into the service for this year.
He said the decision of the administration was taken mainly because of the lack of residential accommodation for personnel already in service.
“It must be explained that a number of personnel are putting up in dilapidated buildings and make-shift structures while others do not have any accommodation at all,” he explained.
The minister added that some officers had embarrassingly become squatters, staying with relations and friends in different towns closer to their stations.
This state of affairs significantly affects the performance of the police personnel as it lowered their morale and demotivates them, he said, adding that as a result of these extreme accommodation difficulties, most married policemen, especially the young ones, cannot live with their families.
Mr Avoka said that it was, therefore the priority concern of the police to improve the acute accommodation shortage before embarking on any recruitment exercise.
He said the police training schools would continue to retrain personnel already in the system to improve their professional effectiveness.
Answering other follow-up questions, the Interior Minister refuted the allegation that the suspension of the enlistment exercise was due to certain World Bank conditionalities attached to loans that the bank had agreed to offer Ghana.
Mr Avoka said it was better to have few police personnel who were well motivated in terms of accommodation and logistics, rather than many policemen living in dilapidated structures.
He said efforts were being made to rehabilitate some police buildings, while some district assemblies had also indicated their preparedness to construct more residential and office accommodation to house police posted to their areas.
The minister also told the House that the newly-completed police office accommodation at Dom-Sampaman had been inspected by the police high command and it was noted that it was located in a remote area with unmotorable road in addition to the fact that there were no residential facility attached for the personnel.
Answering a question posed by the MP for Trobu-Amasaman, Mr Enerst Attuquaye Armah, the minister said the police, therefore intended to discuss the issue of residential accommodation with the community in order to post a few personnel there to maintain law and order.
Answering another question by the MP for Asunafo North, Mr Robert Sarfo-Mensah, Mr Avoka explained that the government had recognised the need to equip and strengthen the capacity of the Ghana National Fire Service throughout the country.
He said efforts were been made to secure new fire engines, and the gave assurance that the Goaso Fire Station would be catered for when the facilities were procured.