"Widen discussions on revision of Police Service Regulations

Page 38: June 5, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Head of Conflict Prevention Management and Resolution of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), Dr Kwesi Aning, has called for wider stakeholder discussion on the revision of the Service Regulations of the Ghana Police Service before it is laid before Parliament.
He described the initiative of the Police Council to review the existing Service Regulations as good and welcome but said the process and approach that the Council used in reviewing the service regulations defeated the purpose for which it was done.
The Daily Graphic in its June 2, 2008 edition reported that the Police Council had reviewed the existing Police Service Regulation as part of efforts to streamline the operations of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) in line with modern trends.
A copy of the new Police Service Regulation has been forwarded to the Attorney-General’s Department for study and onward transmission to Parliament for consideration.
Dr Aning, however, explained that the designing and undertaking of the review ought to have had a wider stakeholder participation led by the Police Council.
“If one wants a Police Service that is responsive to the expectations of the general public in a transitional democracy, then one would have expected a wider stakeholder involvement.”
Dr Aning said it was a great opportunity for civil society organisations, particularly human rights and good governance institutions, to be involved in the review.
He said the review was useful but “I am uncertain what the recommendations are and where and how it can make a change in the service for several reasons.”
According to him, what Ghanaians were seeing within the Ghana Police Service was a reflection of the oversight that had taken place in terms of two critical reports, the Tibiru Report of 1986 and the Archer report of 1991.
“If the service reviews have not taken these two critical committee reports into consideration then I am afraid that whatever is being suggested may be useful only in the very short term,” he added.
Dr Aning said the Police Service was in such a critical state especially in regaining public confidence but more importantly helping the institution to regain its own self-respect and self-confidence.
“This can only be done by an honest stakeholder discussion,” he stated.
The Chairman of the Police Council, Mr Justice Sam Glenn Baddoo, told the Daily Graphic that when the new Service Regulation was passed into law, “it will enable the personnel of the service to have access to one document containing all the laws and regulations, which have been promulgated since independence but are scattered in different documents”.
According to him, all the existing Legislative, Executive and Administrative Instruments governing the establishment and conduct of the Ghana Police Service have been embodied in the new Service Regulation.
They include the Police Service Act of 1970, Act 350; Police Service Regulation, LI 993; the Police Service Administration Regulation, LI 880; aspects of the 1992 Constitution; the Police Service Instructions; Police Service Conditions of Service and relevant circulars and administrative instructions, which have been released over the years but have not been passed into law.