Plans underway to modernise intelligence agencies

Intelligence agencies in the country are being supported up with modern equipment and know-how to enhance their operational capacity and efficiency in crime combat, the Minister of the Interior, Mr Martin Amidu, has stated.
The new measures include the provision of adequate and standardised equipment such as light armoured and riot control vehicles, headgear, bullet proof vests and side arms to be made available to the Ghana Police Service to enable its personnel to perform specific duties.
Taking his turn at the meet-the-press organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra yesterday, Mr Amidu explained that the beefing up of the intelligence network was intended to establish the identities of criminals and find out their motivation for attacking police personnel in crime situations.
Some of the institutions under the ministry are the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), the Ghana National Fire Service, the Prison Service, the Gaming Commission, the Ghana Refugee Board, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the National Peace Council.
On effective policing, Mr Amidu stated that efforts were being made to undertake robust patrols across the country; intensify intelligence gathering on criminal activities; institute rewards system for credible informants; rezone major towns and cities; replicate tent city project in other parts of Accra and some metropolis; and also improve police population ratio through recruitment.
Touching on congestion in the country’s prisons, Mr Amidu said a modern maximum security prison with a capacity of housing 2,000 inmates was underway at Ankaful in the Central Region.
The project, according to the minister, was expected to be inaugurated by the end of 2010 and would accommodate people he termed as high-profile prisoners serving long sentences to ensure proper classification of prisoners in the prisons throughout the country.
In line with the government’s policy, Mr Amidu said the Ghana National Fire Service had intensified its efforts by training two batches of officer cadets in 2010.
He also said the GIS had developed a strategic plan for the next four years with support from the British High Commission and PA Consulting Service Limited, adding that the plan was almost complete and was expected to be launched by the end of 2010.
He said in addition to its security role, the GIS collected revenue on behalf of the government.
As of August, 2010, the GIS had collected GH¢8,584,413.00, thereby exceeding its projected target of GH¢8,528,951.00 by GH¢55,462.00.
Concerning disaster management, Mr Amidu said NADMO made significant achievement in the area of training, human resource development, and creating awareness of various types of hazards.
He also stated that the organisation had, during the year, co-ordinated the emergency responses, search and rescue and evacuation of flood victims in the Greater Accra, Central, Western, Volta and Northern regions.
The Interior Minister said within the past one year, both seizures of drugs and arrests of drug traffickers entering Ghana and those going outside of Ghana had gone down drastically and commended the Narcotic Controls Board for a good work done.
Reacting to attacks on the police by criminals in recent times, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Paul Tawiah Quaye, said the situation was an indication that the police were making it difficult for the criminals to operate, hence the attacks.
He explained that such situations did exist in other places such as the United States, saying now that the trend was becoming a problem in Ghana, the police had to come up with strategies to deal with such criminals.