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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Inspector General of Police, together with the Police Council, and the entire staff of the
Ghana Police Service, are privileged to present this, our Second Strategic/ National Policing
Plan, 2010 - 2014, as our commitment to fulfill our constitutionally approved mandate, using
internationally accepted democratic policing principles and practices to deliver relevant services
to all our stakeholders. The Plan covers three main areas. First is our collective vision and
mission statements to guide fulfillment of our strategic/policing plan objectives. Second is our
honest appraisal of our current resource capacity status expressed as our strengths, weaknesses,
threats and the opportunities available to us to achieve our assigned objectives. Third, are our
determined strategies, programmes and methodologies to overcome our constraints and achieve
enhanced levels of protection of life and property that should meet the expectations of our
stakeholders.
Our combined vision and mission is to be a world-class police service using democratic policing
principles and internationally tested professional best practices to prevent and fight crime, detect,
apprehend and prosecute criminals in order to progressively enhance the security and peace of
our communities in Ghana.
The mission is to be fulfilled by,
- preparing and implementing successive, five year strategic/national policing plans
focused on the enhanced maintenance of law and order and the protection of life and
property of all Ghanaians,
- installing effective democratic and international best practice policing mechanisms to
manage, preempt the commission of crime, investigate and apprehend criminals,
- maintaining a consistent level of prosecution of offenders to act as a deterrent for
criminals and to reduce the prevailing long periods of custodial detention..
These core objectives can be achieved with improved service delivery capacity, namely,
- developing a professionally competent police service through systematic recruitment of
qualified staff, and regular training and development of all staff to establish a high
delivery capability, functional, discipline, integrity and fairness in dealing with the
public,
- maintaining a high degree of accountability and economy in the use of scarce resources,
- maintaining a comprehensive and reliable database, equipping and strengthening,
especially, the lagging investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Police Service,
- equipping the entire Service with adequate infrastructure, accommodation, logistics and
funds to enhance operations.
In order to facilitate the effective discharge of our functions the GPS is divided into several
departments, units, regions, divisions, districts, stations and posts. The current structure of the
Service, installed by Government in 2009 has the IGP at the apex, supervising the entire range
of eight Director Generals performing the key functions from Administration, the three core
functions, Operations, CID, and Legal and five non-core support departments, Administration,
HRM/D, Welfare, General Services, Technical Services and Research and Planning , see Annex
B. This structure creates an inordinately wide and unmanageable span of control for the IGP. In
Annex A, a more manageable structure has been agreed with HEMAB, in which the IGP
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delegates direct supervision and coordination of seven Departments to DG Administration, who
is the most senior Commissioner of Police. He acts as the de facto Deputy IGP, in practice. This
redesigned division of labour is intended to ensure a more equitable sharing of responsibilities
and permits professionalism and specialization of skills and functions in all areas of our work.
The IGP is enabled to focus on key policy issues and attend to the myriad leadership demands of
Government, key stakeholders and the public. We must however bear in mind that no one
department or function in the structure is more important than the other. All our activities are so
important and interdependent for the fulfillment of our mission, that no one activity can be
singled out as the most important. What is needed is for all of us to focus on and improve
communications, between all departments, sections, units, as well as regions, divisions, districts,
stations and posts and the Headquarters, in a network of constant and mutual cooperation,
discussion, consultation and harmonization of effort, in order to achieve our common objectives.
Our major challenge in this second national policing plan is to sustain the culture of democratic
policing principles and international best practices which will enable us to ensure the peace and
security of all Ghanaians. To achieve this, we must address the following priorities. First, as a
police service we must entrench public order management practices to reduce the overall crime
rate to levels that will improve and eventually earn the people’s complete trust of the Police
Service. Secondly, we should provide citizen-focused police services which respond to the needs
of the communities and individuals for protection. In that regard we shall enlarge and equip our
Community Policing Unit (CPU) to enable us operate nationwide. The community policing
policy is a collaborative effort between the police and the communities primarily for fighting
crime, providing security and safety for citizens in their communities. Working together with the
people through Neighbourhood Watch Groups, the Crime Protection Assistants (CPAs) and
police mobile patrols in the communities, we hope to inspire public confidence in the Police
Service. Thirdly, we must take action in collaboration with our partners, the other security
agencies, and the public, to increase sanction detection rates and target prolific and other priority
offenders. Fourth, we must focus on combating serious and organized crime with the primary
objective to reduce people’s concerns and fears about crime and other anti-social behaviour and
disorder. It is our expectation that our declared Policing Plan targets will guide the development
of regional, district and local yearly plans whose implementation will together lead to improved
national policing results and positive strategic assessment of our performance. In the final
analysis, we should be mindful of the fact that the development of our nation depends, to a large
extent, on the environment created by the Police Service, of law and order, safety and security of
life and property, for everyone to pursue their legitimate business in peace.
Recent increased demands on us, in the form of armed robberies, ethnic conflicts, cyber crimes,
narcotic drugs trafficking, and increasing population pressure, continue to expose the inadequacy
of our existing staff strength and capability or low police to population ratio, (PPR). In order to
achieve the additional targets in our policing plan, and improve our police population ratio, our
Staffing plan suggests an increase to our strength of at least 16,000 officers, both basic and
graduate recruits in the next five years, up to 2014, to bring our total GPS staff strength to about
40,000.
As indicated in the IGP’s maiden address, our first priority is to enhance the quality and
professional status of the entire GPS staff to deliver world class services to Ghanaians. To
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achieve that our policy focus in our HRD Plan, is to provide training and development
opportunities for each member at least once every three years, and this will cover staff, at all
levels, ranging from the new police recruit up to the senior command and top management
positions up to the IGP. More refresher courses will be implemented to continuously update the
knowledge and skills of our staff in the core areas of activity, as well as, in integrity, discipline,
leadership and management skills, and respect and fairness in dealing with the public. We would
increase our continuing education, upgrading or study leave programmes, in our effort to
cultivate a learning organization. In addition to a new Staff College, new Police Training Schools
are planned in the four remaining regions to increase our recruitment sources, and provide
regional balance in the recruitment of Ghanaians into the Service. In particular, we need to
improve the syllabi of all training programmes, revise the “Squad Notes” and “Service
Instruction” manuals, strengthen our weak overall investigative skills and improve the quality
and numbers of our staff trainers at all levels to deliver quality training for our staff.
The unavoidably large increase in our staff strength of up to 70% has major implications for staff
accommodation, police training schools, in-service training venues, office space, and related
equipment. Currently 25% of our staff are not housed at all, contrary to our conditions of service.
Out of the 75% who reside in police accommodation only half have decent accommodation. The
rest live in uncompleted buildings, offices, garages, and dilapidated buildings. This means that
by 2014, when our staff strength reaches 40,000 we shall require immediate housing for 31,000.
There are other key infrastructural demands that we shall have to address, but all these cannot be
achieved overnight, and will be phased out in our successive medium term strategic plans up to
the 2020s. All these will impose huge financial obligations, for which we shall look up to the
goodwill of stakeholders and the public.
Police work, all over the world, thrives on a large mass of accurate and reliable information and
communication networks, from which rapid analyses could be made and timely action taken.
Currently, we have three IT units working separately, thus depriving the Service of the benefits
of the unified and comprehensive database we need to operate as a world class service. Our
Modernization Plan prescribes a unified IT Department for the Service and outlines our IT/ICT
and other equipment needs over the next five years and beyond. With much improved equipment
and communication system and effective management of data we should be able to improve our
investigative capabilities and operate like the dependable, modern, world-class, police service we
aspire to become.
Our recent focus on improving community policing services has led to the very rapid growth in
popularity of the Domestic Violence Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), formerly WAJU, as a
very important arm of the Police Service. Over the plan period we intend to widen the national
coverage of the Unit, by staffing, equipping and housing the National Secretariat, as well as the
regional, divisional and district offices, in order to adequately address the problems of the
vulnerable, women and children all the way to the grassroots level. The DOVVSU staff will also
benefit from special training programmes outlined in our HRD Plan to meet the Unit’s peculiar
skills requirements.
Our new motto is “To PROTECT AND SERVE WITH HONOUR.” This underlines our
overriding commitment to protect and serve all Ghanaians, in their communities, using
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democratic policing principles, to preserve their lives, property and personal dignity. Our aim is
to earn the complete trust of the people, as a first step to salvaging our low public image. We
intend primarily to redeem that image by cultivating a highly disciplined and professional corps
of police officers, working closely with the public and delivering much improved services to all.
In order to improve our service delivery capacity, we need to further enhance our mobility and
patrolling duties to meet the increasing crime rate and enhance our presence in the communities.
Our policing plan calls for new ambitious targets and the up to 16,000 additional staff we plan to
recruit by 2014, will demand considerable expansion of all our facilities, especially residential
accommodation, vehicles, equipment and logistics management to upgrade our frontline policing
and patrol duties. In all cases we have made a careful assessment of needs as the strict basis of all
our procurement plans. We are also committed to a culture of planned, systematic, bi-annual
maintenance plan for all our buildings, vehicles, IT and other equipment to ensure that we derive
maximum utility from them.
Finally, we make this pledge as our commitment to the people of Ghana to follow democratic
policing principles and international best practices in protecting and serving their interests during
this plan period and beyond. “We will be tough on crime. We will be accessible to and protect
people who need to call us. We shall be visible to people in the communities. We shall continue
to convict and deter offenders. And we shall continue to serve Ghanaians, right in their
communities, with due respect for their basic rights, and dignity, guided by the principle of
fairness for all. If, in our zeal to earn the trust and support of our stakeholders, as is always the
case, we unwittingly commit any excesses to the displeasure of our stakeholders, we will always
assure them of our primary desire to protect and serve their interests first, and then take swift
action to deal with those officers who carelessly abuse our public trust.”
PAUL TAWIAH QUAYE November, 2009
Inspector General of Police,
Ghana Police Service,
Police Headquarters,
Accra.
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REVIEW OF THE FIRST DRAFT STRATEGIC/NATIONAL
POLICING PLAN, 2006-2010, AND FORWARD TO 2014 .
The First Five-Year Strategic/National Policing Plan, 2006-2010, of the Ghana Police Service
was completed in 2005, and finally approved by the Police Council in August, 2007. However,
its implementation was not formally launched. Nevertheless aspects of the Plan, such as the
organization structure, nomenclature of some positions like Director General, Strategic Direction
and Management, a stipulated number of yearly recruitments into the Service, and progress in
other areas, suggest a degree of implementation. This review of the status of the First Plan
therefore is intended to establish what had been achieved by 2009, as the basis for determining
what targets to pursue in the Second Five-Year Strategic and National Policing Plan, 2010—
2014.
The focus of the review is on the extent to which the Police Service has been able to achieve
some measure of progress or otherwise, in selected areas of its mandate, as derived from its
mission statement, using data from 2005 to 2009, and analysis of such data over the period
before looking forward into the Second Plan period, 2010-2014.
The following vision and mission statements have been more or less operational in the Ghana
Police Service, since August, 2007 and are reviewed, as follows.
VISION; The vision statement from the First Strategic Plan, 2006-2010 was;
“The vision of GPS is to be a world class police service committed to the delivery of planned,
democratic, protective and, peaceful services with honour”
In response to suggestions to make the vision statement more explicit and professionally focused,
the following statement is substituted and recommended. In order to clarify the concept, the ten
points that characterize a world class organization are listed in Chapter 4, of this report. The
modified vision statement follows;
“The vision of GPS is to be a world class police service capable of delivering planned,
democratic, protective, and peaceful services up to standards of international best practice”
MISSION: The mission statement from the First Plan is maintained as appropriate;
“The mission of GPS is to deliver services in crime prevention, detection, apprehension and
prosecution of offenders, consistent with the expectations of Ghanaian stakeholders for
maximum protection, safe, secure and peaceful communities.”
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Performance in Selected Areas of Activity:
GPS Staffing/Manning;
Police Service employment increased by 35% during the First Five-Year Strategic Plan,
2006-2010 period, from 17,554 in January 2006 to 23,702 in 2008/9. The minimum
additional staff target set in the Plan was 10,000, to be recruited mainly from the six basic
Police Training Schools and graduates, to bring the total staff strength to a minimum of
28,000 and maximum of 40,000 by 2010, but those targets could not be met. Currently,
there is need to serve an ever increasing population, estimated to reach 25 million in
2010, and to exceed 27 million by 2014, with the need to combat crimes with increasing
levels of sophistication and to increase both the PPR and service delivery capability of
staff. It will therefore be necessary to ensure an additional minimum recruitment of up to
16,000, over the Second Plan period, 2010—2014, to bring the total staff, this time to, at
least, 38,000 or up to 40,000. This expected staff increase of about 70% over the Plan
period has major implications for police accommodation and all other resource
requirements. The focus, however, should not just be the PPR, and numbers, but on
quality and professionally trained and utilized staff.
Police to Population Ratio (PPR);
The PPR is a measure of the number of police officers available or needed to provide
satisfactory services and protection to Ghanaians. Given Ghana’s population in 2005 of
21.13 million and of 23.9 million in 2008 the PPR had improved from 1: 1,204 in 2005 to
1: 1,008 in 2008. If the staffing level of 40,000 proposed in this Plan is achieved by 2014
when Ghana’s population would be 27 million, the PPR will be 1: 675. This will the
closest Ghana would come to the ideal PPR target of 1: 500 suggested by the UN for all
countries. That target would ensure much improved service delivery and must be
pursued. But, as suggested in the Plan, the increase in numbers must come in tandem with
a systematic programme of professional training to equip them for effective performance.
Human Resource Training and Development;
There is a positive correlation between high performance levels and the levels of staff
training and development. Generally training levels in the GPS have been low with clear
evidence of unsatisfactory performance. For example, in 2007 a total of 4,709 staff were
trained on a wide range of courses, out of which 2,577 were new recruits. That means
that only a total of 2,132 staff, representing 9.0% of regular staff was trained that year.
This, clearly is an unacceptably low rate of developing GPS staff, and is consistent with
the IGP’s major focus on increased training and development of all staff. In that direction
the new policy focus of GPS should be the provision of training and development courses
for every member of staff, at least once every third year. At that rate every member of
staff will be assured requisite training, and up to two-thirds will be assured attendance of
at least two courses over the Five-Year Strategic Plan period, 2010-2014. In order to
implement this policy, it is recommended to build four new PTSs in the four remaining
regions as a priority, both to provide regional balance in, and enlarge the sources of staff
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recruitment into the fast growing Police Service. Apart from the ten Police Training
Schools additional space will need to be created, or rented urgently, in all regions. That
will facilitate implementation of the new training policy requirement to plan and deliver
in-service training/refresher courses, requiring class room facilities for up to 15,000
officers every year.
Operations Department;
Operations is the heart of every police organization, as it performs the major core
activities of patrolling, protecting, guarding, securing the safety of life and property,
maintaining law and order, and ensuring internal peace in the country. Examples of
recent key achievements include, CAN 2008, State Visit of President Bush of USA, the
UNCTD XII of 2008, the ACP conference, Committee for Joint Action Demos., Conflicts
in Bawku, Suhum, Gbese, Anloga, Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, 2008,
President Obama of USA’s Visit in 2009, and President Kwame Nkrumah’s Centenary
Celebrations. A large percentage of its staff performs Guard duties at the Presidency,
VVIP, Banks, Embassies, Public security Installations, etc. leaving inadequate numbers
for other duties. Yet like all other Departments and Units of GPS, the constraints persist
as; inadequate staffing, acute accommodation problems, lack of vehicles to perform basic
duties and to give real meaning to the concept and practice of community policing,
among others. A clear decision is proposed to formalize and commercialize Guard Duties
as a way of generating much needed revenue to sustain the development of the Service.
The implications for this action include increases in staff numbers and professional
training for staff assigned Guard Duties.
Community Policing Concept and Unit;
Consistent with the vision of GPS, since the First Strategic Plan, 2006, to be a worldclass,
democratic Service, committed to building partnerships and community
engagement in its operations, a Community Policing Unit has been in operation. With
limited resources and a staff strength of only 28, the Unit’s experimental focus has been
on selected areas of the Greater Accra region. The Unit’s approach is mainly four
pronged, i.e.,
a) Combined sensitization, outreach and Anti-crime Educational talks
b) Formation of Neighbourhood Watch Committees
c) The employment of Community Protection Assistants (CPAs) under the National
Youth Employment Scheme, and
d) The use of Police Bicycle Patrols, among other means of reaching out.
The concept of community policing is a world-wide experimental effort to forge collaboration
between the police and the communities for fighting crime, providing security and safety for
citizens in a way that permits the building of real partnership and joint responsibility for security
in the communities. As a method of fighting the high crime rates in, especially, urban areas the
concept and practice will need to be sustained and expanded, beyond Accra, to all key urban and
crime-prone areas of the country within the next five-year plan period
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Cases Reported to the Police;
The number of cases reported to GPS for each of the last five years did not show any
definite trend. It was 225,341 in 2004, 190,019, in 2005, 228,567, in 2006, 255,412 in
2007 and 239,823 in 2008. Given the 13% increase in Ghana’s population and 35%
increase in number of police officers employed since 2005, the number of cases reported
could have been higher. Questions that need to be raised include, whether Ghanaians are
not reporting more cases because generally problems reported to the Police Service are
not satisfactorily addressed. Or could it possibly be that cases are being under recorded to
fend off enquiry regarding low rates of investigation of those reported. But clearly the
ability of the Police Service to investigate only about 20% of the average of the 230,000
cases reported each of the last five years constitutes very poor performance. The
Regional and Divisional Commanders should be held accountable for those cases
reported and recorded but left uninvestigated under their jurisdictions. The general
public’s attitude seems to be that, nothing happens when cases are reported, so why
bother, and that sums up the public image of the Service. That image is not positive, and
is clearly inconsistent with the mission of GPS.
Cases still under Investigation;
It is not clear why between 2004 and 2008 more than 80% of cases reported to the police
every year were not fully investigated and concluded. This seems inconsistent with the
reports from the CID of cooperation of the specialized Units, like the Crime Scene
Management Team (CSMT), the Forensic Laboratory and the Crime Data Service
Bureau, (CDSB) Clearly the 80% of cases left uninvestigated every year, and why the
cases reported have not substantially increased over the last five years, need to be
explained by regional and divisional commanders, as a matter of urgency to resolve this
indication of poor performance.
Cases awaiting Trial in the Courts;
On the average only 37% of cases sent to court for trial, between 2005 and 2008, were
completed. Cases sent to court represent only about 13.% of true cases registered by the
police. Apart from this indicating poor performance by the police, it could also mean that,
either the Courts lacked capacity to try more cases sent to them, or the Legal
Department, and the CID could not complete the pre-trial investigations for more cases
to be sent to court. That again could point to inadequate investigative capacity on the part
of the CID staff, and to the fact that the CID Training School has not functioned over the
last three years.
Major Offences;
The statistical data on the major offences committed, ie., Murder, Robbery, Rape,
Defilement, did not show significant variations over the period 2005 t0 2008. With a
growing population and a vigilant press the statistics would normally show an upward
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trend, or reflect effective police vigilance or other reasons. Could it be that people are not
reporting cases to avoid the frustrations of inconclusive police investigations? The only
exception in the records was Possession, use, distribution of narcotic drugs which showed
a high yearly average increase of 10,9% over the period. The question, of whether any
decreases in the data on the major offences committed could be attributed to improved
performance by the police, cannot be clearly answered, using the data recorded alone.
Criminal Investigations Department;
The CID under whose jurisdiction the last four points above fall is one of the largest
departments of the Service, with 16% share of the total staff. It is supposed to handle the
average of 230,000 cases reported each year,. But on the average only 20% of those cases
are investigated, leaving about 80% not completed each year. Such poor performance
may however be only partly explained by the following constraints; i) it has been unable
to train detectives since 2007 when the Detective Training School was gutted by fire,
until 2009 when the BNI Training School admitted 50 CID officers, ii) an important
investigative facility like the Forensic Science Laboratory has not been functioning since
2007, and is being refurbished by the European Union Grant support, iii). similarly the
Criminal Data Services Bureau is almost dormant and in need of major refurbishment and
modernization, iv) finally, detectives are forced to rely almost entirely on their own
sources during the lengthy process of intelligence gathering and crime investigations.
Those and other constraints notwithstanding, the performance level of the Department is
rather low, at 20%, as CID staff seem unwilling to take the necessary steps to justify their
employment and improve on the low investigation rates to at least 50% of cases reported.
The other constraints that must be addressed include the GPS-wide lack of transportation,
equipment, and accommodation.
The Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU), of Operations Dept.
The GPS Annual Report, 2008, did not provide much statistical data to make a clear
assessment of the performance of the Operation Department’s performance, apart from
the MTTU. Staffing is a problem given the fact that a considerable number are assigned
Guard duties, at the expense of community patrolling and other duties. The Department
has peculiar problems like special weapons and vehicles for riot and combat duties.
However, it has also the same general problems of staffing, accommodation, equipment,
and vehicles for patrol and other duties as the GPS as a whole.
The number of motor accident cases handled by the MTTU, and the number of
convictions recorded showed no clear trend over the past four years. The number of staff
of the MTTU countrywide is 1,648, about 7% of the total GPS staff, in 2008, suggesting
the need for a major increase in staff strength. The MTTU in the Accra Region, including
the capital city of Accra, where most of the major national events and motor accidents are
concentrated, has 520 staff or 2.2% of the total GPS staff strength. The Unit in the Accra
region has only two (2) vehicles, and 21 motorcycles for patrol duties, in an area with the
highest concentration of motorists, and which handled an average of 43% of the total
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national motor accidents in 2007 and 2008. Staffing, accommodation for staff, vehicles
and equipment constitute the major constraints of the Unit, as for the Operations
Department and the entire GPS.
Legal Department;
The Department performs a lot of internal legal functions in addition to referring
investigated cases to the Attorney General’s Department for prosecution. Its prosecutorial
output however depends on the level of completion of investigations of cases referred to
it by the CID, and that Department’s work has been very constrained in recent years. The
Department did not feature a report on its activities in the GPS Annual Report, 2008.
DOVVSU Staffing;
The number of DOVVSU staff increased from 162 in 2005 to 423 in 2008, out of which
80% benefited from training in 2008. The plan is to extend DOVVSU facilities to all
Regions, Divisions, Districts and Desks. The First Strategic Plan proposed a staffing level
of 1,043 by 2010. That number would need to be increased proportionately when the
total GPS staff numbers increase by 70% in 2014. Currently, the Unit has 87 desks and
offices throughout the country. There are 960 Regions, Divisions, Districts, Stations and
Desks across the country. Like the other Departments and Units DOVVSU’s other
priority needs are, accommodation, transportation, equipment, and funding.
Projects Unit/Nationwide Accommodation;
Budgetary release of GHc553,000 for 2008, as for other years, could not fund the
numerous projects designed by the Projects Unit. There are outstanding projects, ranging
from locations across the country like, Cape Coast, Achimota, Police Headquarters,
Elubo, Essiama Division, Takoradi, Sunyani, Koforidua PTS, the Forensic Laboratory in
Accra, among many others. Commencement letters applied for to enable the Unit to
implement those projects were reported not to have been released. Similarly, renovation
of many old structures, some dating back decades since first construction, remains
stalled This has been the pattern of neglect of Police accommodation problems over the
past decades. The Unit reports that out of 24,000 GPS staff only 18,000 are housed. Only
half of that number, of about 9,000 live in decent accommodation. This means that
currently 15,000 staff require decent accommodation made up of 6,000 who are not
housed at all and 9000 without decent accommodation. By 2014 when GPS is expected to
have 40,000 staff, 75% or 31,000 will therefore need to be housed.
In addition to the residential accommodation the Service needs office buildings estimated
as; Headquarters buildings for 29 Divisions, 100 Districts and 200 Police Stations. As the
IGP has already emphasized the accommodation needs of the Service constitute the major
priority and cost area that must be addressed together with the increase in PPR over the
Second Plan period.
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Transportation;
The total number of vehicles held by all regions including the Headquarters and Police
Hospital in 2008 was reported as 1,433, out of which 21% had broken down. The total
number of Regions, Divisions, Districts and Stations and Posts across the country is 960.
This means that each Region, Division, District, Station and Post could be allocated only
one vehicle to carry out police duties. Given the predominant need for mobility in all
aspects of the work of the police, the number of vehicles should at least be doubled. A
case in point is the Accra regional MTTU which has only one vehicle for patrols in the
whole capital city of Ghana.! The problem of transportation therefore remains one the
major priority areas for a service whose effectiveness depends on mobility, patrolling and
being there when it matters
Communications/IT;
Productive police work is heavily dependent on adequate communications. Yet in the
GPS the acquisition, utilization and control of IT equipment are not adequately
coordinated in the R&P, Payroll, CID and the Peacekeeping Units. As a result there is no
dependable stock of IT equipment in the system, and based on that, a clear estimate of the
numbers and types of such equipment to procure. The IT Modernization Plan attempts to
provide an indication of needs. Sketchy information indicates that 530 of the total 807
police stations and posts have no radio communication equipment or direct phone lines.
There are no internal telephone extension equipment in 560 of the police stations. The
Police Headquarters including the CID, has only 120 extension lines instead of more than
the 1,000 needed. Modern communication equipment like mobile radios and Walkietalkies
are rare equipment for the majority of Ghana’s police officers. It was noted that in
2008 the Bureau of National Communications contributed 1,200 Gota Handsets to
enhance the means of communication in the Service. There is need for more effective
management of the IT assets of the Service. Inadequate IT equipment remains a major
weak link in GPS’s performance.
Financing the Plan;
Budgetary provisions remained the major constraint during The First Strategic Plan,
2006-2010, as the records for 2005—2009, consistently indicated that eighty per cent,
(80% ) of the GPS remain budget, went into salaries, leaving only 20% for all other needs
including investments, and critical needs like accommodation, equipment, etc. In effect
the First Plan was not specifically funded to implement its planned programmes and
projects. Funding, therefore remains the first priority need of GPS, to implement the
detailed programmes and projects outlined in the Second Strategic Plan, 2010-2014,
above everything else.
The First Plan had budgeted for a total expenditure of six hundred and forty-three million
US dollars,(US $ 643,921,421)This Second Plan, 2010 -2014 has involved more
comprehensive coverage and costing with a total cost estimate of, two billion, nine
hundred million US dollars, (US $ 2,910,802,024). The GPS and Government will need
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to undertake a major fund raising exercise, far beyond the normal budgetary limits, in
order to implement this very essential Plan..
For more detailed aspects of the areas outlined in this review the reader is referred to the specific
reports supporting this Report.
