Retired Superintendent of Police, Paul Avuyi has made a crippling exposé against the Ghana Police Service, detailing corrupt practices which are affecting morale in the service especially among junior ranks.
Among several malpractices that he talked about was the thorny issue about promotions which has generated much disquiet in the service for some time now.
He also said “there is no transparency and accountability in the top police hierarchy.”
In an exclusive interview with Daily Guide, Mr. Avuyi who is noted for expressing his convictions and opinions about happenings in the police service without fear or favour leading to his demotion while in active service noted, “the service is still at the crossroad, it’s still a weak institution.”
This he said was because “promotions to the senior officers’ grade are a matter of course. They are not competitive nor are they based on output or a paper selection scheme.”
He consequently described the police council which currently has Vice President John Mahama as its chairman as “a rubber stamp used to ratify promotions that are done under very questionable and sometimes unprofessional circumstances.”
Mr. Avuyi who has earned the respect of most of the country’s police officers especially junior ranks for sharing in their concerns stressed the need for adequate measures and a legal framework to contain the raging tension in the Ghana police before it implodes.
This, according to him, was evident in the inequities and unfairness that have characterized the system of promotions in the service from Non Commissioned Officers (NCOs); constables through to chief inspectors and commissioned officers, and Assistant Superintendent of Police to the Inspector General of Police.
“Officers are just being promoted; no command courses. In the past you had to undergo a command course for two weeks at GIMPA before you are promoted but for a very long time, they just promote them without any cause,” he indicated.
Though he identified the methods of promotion in the police service as including examination, seniority and administrative, Mr. Avuyi noted that in most instances these regulations are not followed but side-stepped at the expense of wanton abuse of discretionary powers by the top brass.
He consequently stressed need for a review to make the policy a law “so that no police hierarchy comes and promotes people as it pleases them. If you go into the Police Service Act 350/1970, Section 5 (3) states that “promotions shall be made according to merit and it ends there.”
“An inspector has worked under me before; he was promoted an inspector in 1993, along the line he was promoted chief inspector and he is going to go home next year, he is still a chief inspector. And then somebody passed out as a recruit in 1995 and that person now is a superintendent; from recruit to superintendent within 17 years, look at the disparity and the inequity in the system,” he said.
“The more you are kept in your rank, the more your pension benefits are reduced. I had been in the inspectorate rank for 8 years; when it came time for examinations, they added those who were 4 years in their ranks to write the exams with us and this inequity and unfairness is still happening.”
Superintendent Avuyi also decried the practice where some junior ranks; constable or corporals who return from study leave are promoted to the ranks of chief inspector and given direct entry into the Police College whilst their colleagues in ranks who continued to work in their absence maintain their ranks without promotion.
“So when it comes to promotions, the junior ranks are at a very big disadvantage and they leave the service very peeved, very frustrated and very bitter,” he said.
Asked whether he missed the police service his answer was “I miss it not because I left but because things are still not going on well with the service…the service is still weak because the structures are not proper.”
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