Senior Police Officer Faces Service Enquiry

... For Calling For New Leadership
A Senior police officer, Superintendent Paul Kwame Avuyi, the acting Divisional Commander for Mampong-Ashanti, is facing a service enquiry for calling for a new leadership for the Ghana Police Service.

Among the charges levelled against Supt. Avuyi is that he caused the publication of an article in the June 15, 2004 edition of the Daily Graphic, titled ?Leadership in Police?, without permission from the Police Administration and that the act has cause the Police Administration and the entire service to suffer scorn from the public and brought the service into disrepute.

On June 4, 2004, the Mampong Division of the Ghana Police Service organised a workshop for a cross-section of officers and men of the service.In his address, Supt. Avuyi stated, among other things, that there was total lack of vision and direction from the highest to the lowest level of the Ghana Police Service.

Supt. Avuyi likened the problem of leadership in the service to the deadly AIDS disease and termed it as ?Acquired Leadership Management Deficiency Syndrome (ALMDS); the effect of the affliction on us is that we have not only grown very lean, professionally and dying slowly but also we have become overly static and impervious to transformation?.

Supt. Avuyi is facing seven counts of misconduct contrary to Service Regulations of the Police Service Act, 1970.

The Chief Staff Officer to the Inspector General of Police, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACOP), Mr James Oppong-Boanuh, who confirmed the service enquiry in an interview, said the report of the initial enquiry would be forwarded to the Regional Disciplinary Board for a review before it would be sent to the Central Disciplinary Board at the headquarters for a further review.

He said these processes had been outlined to give Mr Avuyi a fair trial and that he was entitled during the enquiry to send witnesses and a counsel.He explained that it was an offence for any officer to say things they could not substantiate.

Mr Oppong-Boanuh said the enquiry was to give him an opportunity to substantiate the allegations he made, failure of which would result in disciplinary measures against him.He said Supt. Avuyi made serious allegations, including promotions being based on tribalism and the service being bankrupt of leadership.