Televised vetting of Kan-Dapaah, Nitiwul dangerous – Kumadoe

A Fraud and Security Consultant Richard Kumadoe has dissented on the decision of the Appointment Committee of Parliament to vet Albert Kan-Dapaah and Dominic Nitiwul, ministers-designate for National Security, and Defense, respectively, on television.

Mr Kumadoe told Abena Tabi on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, February 13, that the answers these two personalities gave revealed too much information about Ghana’s security arrangement to the entire world, a situation he believes is bad for the management of the security of the country.

Per best practices, he said, these two officials could have been examined behind closed doors.

He also noted that the nominees could have also declined to answer some of the questions on live television.

“It is dangerous to be vetting your national security minister in the public. Issues of accountability for the last four years, we could have found a way of dealing with it.

“You remember [Kan Dapaah] also said we are planning on setting up security intelligence committee within parliament and they will be vetted

“Where we are copying this democracy from, the America and the other places, there are some level of vetting you can do when it comes to the top hierarchy of national security. The nature of security operations and the threat analysis makes those guys invisible, you cannot have them in the public domain asking them questions,” Mr Kumadoe said.

In another interview with Berla Mundi on the New Day show Thursday January 11, Mr Kumado said the answers given to the questions posed by the committee members with regards to operations of institutions like the Bureau of National Investigation(BNI), now known as National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), exposed too much of Ghana’s security arrangement to the entire world, a situation he said, could have been averted by vetting him behind closed doors.

“I have worked with the BNI (Bureau of National Investigation) for a number of years, I have practiced Security and Security Intelligence across the globe for years and I think I have a personal issue for him to be vetted publicly, for the sake of the many things he has said which should not be said, for instance, he was pushed and he spoke about some of the internal operations of the BNI."

“The BNI is a secret society organization and just like any other secret service across the globe, the operations and internal operations of the secret service is not disclosed and is not for the public, but for once he has admitted that the invasion of parliament by the military was a coup d’etat”.

He added, “My uncle Kan Dapaah, if you’re listening to me, this is what I don’t do, I’m not coming hard on you but I’m just saying that if I was in your shoes I wouldn’t allow me to be vetted publicly."

“Many of the things you say coming into the public domain, will also call for public discussion for which some people might have veered into many extreme positions that is unfortunate”.

During the vetting, Mr Kan-Dapaah said among other things that deliberate plans went into the refocusing of the erstwhile BNI to meet its mandate.

“We thought they were not doing enough in terms of intelligence,” he admitted, observing that on a number of occasions the Bureau was carrying out operations the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service should take.