Staff of the Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) are enraged about the series of high-profile blunders being committed by their Acting Executive Secretary, Francis Kofi Torkornoo, in his bid to project himself as the messiah of the anti-narcotics agency.
They are also seething with anger over why Francis Kofi Torkornoo, who, despite his open show of sympathy for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) within the NACOB walls, managed to secure the Acting Executive Secretary position through his wife’s connection in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), would carry out an expansion of his office- which was not part of an original scope of work to the renovation project- and sublet that contract to an unknown contractor.
Whilst crediting Mr. Torkonoo for the seven (7) unit kennel to house detective dogs, the staff say the wild dogs’ presence on their already crowded compound portends danger which makes their job very risky, aside the fact that that purchase too did not go through any procurement process.
The staff of NACOB who want remain anonymous for fear of victimization “… further condemn the lies thrown out there about the Elubo Border Office. The acclaimed office is a twenty (20) footer container which has been partially furnished with only one (1) desktop computer. Why would TK and his three member management paint the picture that all is well with Elubo Post?”
Again, the concerned staff are calling on the Acting Executive Secretary to tell the public: the total cost of the office project, the name of the contractor, whether the office project went through proper procurement process, whether an evaluation process was conducted or not.
“Indeed, the Acting Executive Secretary has no regard for the procurement process at all. It is no surprise that the ‘Arrogant’ Accountant, does the procurement on behalf of the organisation instead of the Procurement Unit”, the staff alleged.
More so, the staff in a rejoinder to an earlier publication to the effect the NACOB had received a facelift, just by merely painting the building averred that “…We want to state categorically that it’s unethical to publish the image of our facility in the media (be it old and new). The question is, what do TK and his staff officer seeks to achieve by exposing staff to such a danger? Is it to lure the President to confirm his appointment? Besides, would sister organisations such as the BNI do that? Has TK and his two apprentice forgotten that the use of billboards and sign post to give direction to our facility is not accepted because it could expose the facility to personal attacks by aggrieved drug dealers or barons who have served various degree of sentences or are in detention?”
They also could not fathom the assertion that over 70% of staff have been trained in various capacities to move the organisation to the next level, given that, “For the past two (2) years, staff who have received training are less than 100. We there, genuinely, believe the AES said 70 staff and not the 70% the publications sort to portray.”
This paper also gathered that many of the workers are only at NACOB in body and not in spirit, as their Acting Executive Secretary’s actions pushes them away from the security outfit daily.
Read excerpts of the rejoinder: Security Governance Initiative
Tribalism has taken a better part of our AES and because of that a group of NACOB staff who were being trained on Security Governance Initiative (SGI) to man our porous borders has been replaced with his cronies, ‘yes-men people’, his praise singers and his tribes’ men.
The AES and his two other management members have not organised even one staff durbar and use that platform to outline the policies, programs and plans of management (if any). They have not even created an avenue for feedback from the operatives because AES does not believe in views of dissent. This is evident from both publications as it TK used ‘he’ (referring to himself) throughout without a mention of Management or Team. Such is he, a dictator and Micromanager, jack of all trades, in charge, operations, education, finance and administration!
Another challenge we staff face under TK is his extremely bad human relations and lack of appreciation for issues of staff welfare issues. Currently, there is serious tension between AES and supposed management team. It is worse when it comes to dealing with his deputy. Our fear is our courage, to drawing the attention of well-meaning Ghanaians and the Nana Addo Led Government that if the Government sit on concern, these issues can ground the organisation which is the lead agency in the fight against drugs. We the staff, wants to correct the erroneous impression that Staff are highly motivated to work is contrary to the reality on the ground. Majority of staff are not ready to even sacrifice one additional minute of their time to work for mother Ghana because of the bad leadership skills exhibited by the AES. This runs from the HQ through the regional commands. In fact if we are motivated why are staff resigning every day? In fact since June to December this year alone, over 20 officers, both junior and senior officers have resigned. It will be worse going forward. Do we know the potential implications of having well trained officers resigning? Your guess is good as ours.
In fact, the AES has a poor working relationship with staff. He is very vindictive, has an offensive body posture, an authoritarian and arrogant like the pea cock. In fact, divide and rule is one of his cardinal management principles.
He has collapsed the systems and structures in the organisation to suit his personal interest. He does not even care about staff welfare because he is bereft of ideas when it comes to managing people. Supervision is a serious challenge to the other superior officers because the systems and structures are dead.
We want to state here that, NACOB is not a sole proprietor nor a Unit within an organisation every leader needs to tolerate views of dissent. Staff with different views should not be seen as enemy of his administration be side-lined as is being practiced.
The truth is that, a little over 94.6% of staff are not happy working with Mr. Francis Kofi Torkornoo. We have credible information to prove that he is being shielded by the Ministry for The Interior. We want to appeal to the Welfare Executives to sit up and petition the President on the happenings within the organisation. The general level of apathy, low staff morale, unprecedented staff turnover, ongoing management fracas between TK and his Deputy and lack of direction of our dear organisation must be made know to the President. The silence of the Welfare Executives seems to confirm the perception that they are being compromised. We the staff are solidly behind you hence wake up from your sleep and do the needful thing for staff.
We further plead with the government to as a matter of urgent ask Mr. Francis Kofi Torkornoo to step aside with immediate effect. Anything contrary to our request, we shall surely advise ourselves. #changefranciskofitorkornoo#.
GOD BLESS OUR HOMELAND GHANA
Staff of NACOB.
Signed
Mr. Francis Kofi Torkornoo was however not available to respond to the allegations as calls to his 020…number was not responded to neither was it returned.
