Defense Minister, Kindly Look Into This Also

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Garden City, New York

Nov. 16, 2014

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

During a recent tour of Liberation Barracks, or the Third Battalion of Infantry (3BN), in the Brong-Ahafo capital of Sunyani, Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor, the Defense Minister, passionately appealed to Mr. Seth Tekper, the Finance Minister, to release funding for construction and renovation works that were long overdue at the garrison (See "'Ghana Armed Forces Need[s] Funds Urgently'" Ghana News Agency / Ghanaweb.com 11/16/14).

It is not clear why it has taken this long for the Defense Minister to issue his appeal to his coordinate cabinet appointee at the Finance Ministry. I also expected Dr. Kunbuor to have issued an equally passionate appeal to the Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, although I am equally mindful of the perennial existence of the Army Corps of Engineers. I have a brother-in-law, Col. Kwame Gansah, who works in that regiment.

Even more importantly, the Defense Minister's appeal to his colleague at the Finance Ministry disturbingly highlighted the glaringly poor communication links between these two cardinal ministerial officials. In other words, does President John Mahama not regularly confer with his team, or panoply, of cabinet appointees, so as to have rendered it totally unnecessary for Dr. Kunbuor to publicly appeal to Mr. Tekper for capital and/or financial assistance? Then also, what prevented the Defense Minister from whipping out his cellphone and putting a call through to the Finance Minister? Or do Messrs. Kunbuor and Tekper have an axe to grind, thus their apparent inability or lack of desire to promptly and directly communicate with one another?

And if so, what is President Mahama doing about the same? I mean, Dr. Kunbuor's appeal does not sound very professional. It would also be significant and interesting to learn whether immediately upon his assumption of office as Defense Minister, Dr. Kunbuor had asked for a comprehensive assessment vis-a-vis logistics and the general state of physical plant facilities at all the military facilities and installations around the country. And if he had, indeed, done so, had he also submitted the budgetary expenditure of upgrades and renovations that needed to be done at these security facilities to the Finance Minister? And lastly, when? And also, why has it apparently taken this long for Mr. Tekper to respond?

Well, I decided to respond to this particular news item, because recently a gentleman by the name of Mr. Patrick Teye (I hope I am not getting him into trouble with this unauthorized mention) wrote to tell me that roughly 1,200 (twelve-hundred) military personnel had been served notice since the beginning of this year, 2014, to proceed on terminal leave and/or retirement by December 1st. Mr. Teye expressed great pride in the fact of him having served his country for some twenty-five years or more. His problem, and I believe also the problem of his classmen and women, is that the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government does not seem to adequately appreciate him and his colleagues of dedicated uniformed personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces, especially those scheduled for retirement and/or honorable discharge at the end of 2014.

In the main, the grievance of Mr. Teye and his colleagues is that in view of the precipitous depreciation in the value of the Cedi, Ghana's major legal tender, the 80-percent of salaries and benefits due these retiring military personnel is woefully inadequate, especially when juxtaposed with the salaries and benefits of colleagues who retired last year and the year before. In short, Mr. Teye and his colleagues are appealing to both the Mahama government and the leadership of the GAF to proportionately adjust the percentages of salaries and benefits due them in order to offset the rather steep gradient of inflation that has adversely affected the value of the Cedi.

Mr. Teye also tells me that most of the Forces' personnel use these final settlement of their salaries and benefits to build their retirement homes, but since the price of a bag of cement, which was C16.50 just this January, has skyrocketted to between C33.00 and C35.00, it means that unlike their colleagues who retired a year or two ago, Mr. Teye and his classmen and women retirees of 2014 would not be able to settle themselves comfortably in the twilight of their days. The foregoing grim state of affairs also implies that the remaining 20-percent of the salaries and benefits due Mr. Teye and his classmen and women, once they have vacated their professional residences, or barrack quarters, would be unduly delayed, as a direct result of their inability to promptly complete the construction of their retirement homes.

I hope the Defense, Finance and Water Resources, Works and Housing ministers are paying sedulous attention.