Defence Minister Rewards Incompetent Officers

- Civilian Employee Yells

The Minister for Defence, Lieutenant General Smith, is accused of rewarding cronies in the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) with promotions and appointments in reciprocity for favors and assistance from them.

Colonel S Akai-Nettey (GH/1883) is fingered as one of the people who has benefitted from the ‘cronyism’ of the Minister as a reward for the numerous assistance that he has been offering the Minister for Defence over the years. Mr.EH Kornyoh, who accuses Colonel S Akai-Nettey of benefitting from his ‘friendship’ with the Defence Minister, complains of victimization. Mr. Kornyoh stated in his petition that when he (Kornyoh) was promoted on merit to the Grade of Chief Quantity Surveyor on 16th June 2011, the Director of Engineer Services, Colonel Akai-Nettey, “as usual is gone on rampage with the allegations that, I am not a professional Quantity Surveyor and that the promotion should be canceled to the extent that, he has stopped action on the publication of the CEM on the publication. “This act of persistent vindictor will not auger well for the Ghana Armed Forces in particular and Ghana as a whole”.

The petitioner continues that “however, on Wednesday 22nd June, 2011 Colonel Akai-Nettey held in his hands my promotion letter to the DCE just to have my promotion canceled”.

It is this act of victimization and vindictiveness on the part of Colonel Akai-Nettey against Mr. Kornyoh and condoned by the Defence Minister that elicited a startling revelation in the petition letter dated 28th June 2011 and copied to the Director of Civilian Establishment (DCE), the Chief of Staff at the General Headquarters, the Director of Engineer Services (DES) at the General Headquarters, the Office of the President at the Castle, Osu and the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ). The petitioner who holds a Bachelor of Arts (Management), Executive MBA (Project Management) and is a member of the Ghana Institute of Surveyors (MGhIS) questioned the judgment of the Minister of Defence and the Military High Command in promoting Colonel S Akai-Nettey from the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to full Colonel on 22nd December 2009.

Mr. Kornyoh stated that “Colonel Akai-Nettey joined the Ghana Army Engineer crops with an ordinary Technician Diploma (OTD) far way in the early 1980’s as a short service commissioned officer but had refused to pursue further studies to up grade himself on the job.

“He possesses poor IQ and therefore it was not surprising that he failed miserably at the staff college junior division course of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) and was declared a non-trainable candidate within the service. So he was not recommended to attend the senior division course and as such, he should not have been made to hold any command position in the service. “I am also very much aware that, by Armed Forces standards if an officer failed to attend the senior course, that officer will not even attain the rank of a Lt Col, let alone a full Colonel”.

Further checks conducted by DAYBREAK on the revelations in the petition of Mr. Kornyoh on Colonel Akai-Nettey reveal that most of the officers, with the exception of Medical Doctors and Nursing officers, holding the rank of Colonel and equivalent had the symbol ‘PSC’ meaning Passed Staff College in front of their names while Colonel S Akai-Nettey (GH/1883) had only ‘JSC’ meaning Junior Staff College in front of his name.

DAYBREAK’s investigations also revealed that Colonel Akai-Nettey was promoted Lt. Col on 8th February 1999 when the current Defence Minister was Army Commander, thus confirming that his promotion was based on preferential treatment against the recommendations of Staff College.

We gather that Colonel Akai-Nettey was to be released compulsorily from the Ghana Armed Forces on account of age when once again he was saved and promoted to the rank of a full Colonel on 22nd December 2009.

Our investigations revealed that Colonel S Akai Nettey whose date of birth is 15th October 1953 had already passed the compulsory retiring age of Lt Cols which is 53 years as at 7th January 2009 when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) came to power. “Indeed, even at the time of his promotion to the rank of Colonel, he was already 57 years, the unofficial retiring ages for colonels”, Mr. Kornyoh noted.