Complete NADMO overhaul needed - Local governance analyst

The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) can be made to run more efficiently if professionals are engaged to undertake an overhaul of its structures, a local governance analyst, George Kyei Baffuor, has said.

NADMO was formed in 1996 during the Rawlings administration, to assist victims of disasters such as floods, fire, epidemics, among others. The organisation, over the years, has been perceived to ingratiate itself to whichever party ascends to the presidency.

Speaking with Obeng Mensah on Accra News on Monday May 30, Mr Kyei-Baffour said a state agency in charge of managing disasters like NADMO should have had professionals specialised in the different sectors of its operation, in its ranks. But it had suffered the infiltration of party supporters, just like many state institutions had embarked on mass hiring of former cadres of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), when Ghana returned to democratic rule in 1993.

He said NADMO had had a history of not having adequately qualified personnel run its affairs, with the situation slightly altering during the era of former President John Kufuor when two professionals joined the organisation. Mr Baffuor noted, however, that things reversed to the era of party faithful taking charge of NADMO’s affairs when the National Democratic Congress returned to power. The professionals, he said, were hounded out, while others believed to be affiliates of the former government were either sacked or demoted.

“You realise that all who worked with NADMO during Kufuor’s regime, they were either removed or had their ranks reduced…just to frustrate you out of the system. So, in current times, it has become an opportunity for politicians in the ruling party and government. So, it is little wonder that there has been a lot of inefficiencies in the performance of their roles”.

In his opinion, NADMO would need an assessment of its organogram and a clean-up of its administrative structures, while the criteria for appointing persons to fill vacancies there should also be “streamlined”.