[ 2010-09-25 ]

Sacked Information Services boss calls for probe
The dismissed Acting Director of the Information
Services Department (ISD), Nee Agiri Barnor is
demanding a thorough investigation into a petition
against him by five officers of the department to
the Minister of Information asking for his removal
for alleged poor leadership style and not being a
team player as well as allegedly failing to lay
out a vision for the ISD.

Agiri Barnor says a thorough investigation will
establish that he was a victim of “a larger
vicious conspiracy” of which the petition against
him is a mere part.

The government per a letter signed by Mr J.
Bebako-Mensah, secretary to President Mills
terminated Agiri Barnor’s appointment and
suggested he was to be reassigned.

But in a statement he has issued, Agiri Barnor
says it appears he stepped on some toes while
doing his best to run his office according to the
rules and constrained by a rather lean budget.

“Unfortunately, it appears I stepped on the toes
of some people who became hell bent on removing
me. Efforts at communicating government policies
were consistently and systematically sabotaged.
The Department for example had only GHC 45,000 to
carry out public education on policy throughout
the eleven months I served at ISD. When
communications to the public on government policy
failed the scapegoat became ISD.”

Below is Mr Barnor’s statement


STATEMENT BY NEE AGIRI BARNOR, FORMER AG. DIRECTOR
INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT

I have served H.E. The President of the Republic
of Ghana and the nation diligently and to the best
of my ability in the position of Acting Director
of the Information Services Department (ISD) for
the last eleven months. I was nominated for the
position of Director ISD by H.E. The President,
where I sought to uphold the highest standards of
the Ghana Civil Service. I encouraged all the
officers with whom I served to emulate the same.
Indeed, the period I spent at ISD is marked by my
dedication to ensuring that the Department
operated according to the rules. My objective was
simply to ensure that government policies would be
communicated effectively to the people of Ghana.

H.E. The President of Ghana instructed all his
appointees, Ministers, civil servants and indeed
all Ghanaians that under his government it would
not be “business as usual” which included
government communications with the people of
Ghana. This was my guiding principle.
Unfortunately, it appears I stepped on the toes of
some people who became hell bent on removing me.
Efforts at communicating government policies were
consistently and systematically sabotaged. The
Department for example had only GHC 45,000 to
carry out public education on policy throughout
the eleven months I served at ISD. When
communications to the public on government policy
failed the scapegoat became ISD.

Any insinuation that I have had any dealings with
the Daily Guide newspaper and in particular with
any of its publications is false. There is no
political benefit in this approach for me, or for
the cause I have stood for in over 30 years in
politics and public service in Ghana. I have never
been responsible for any publication in the Daily
Guide.

The petition submitted by five officers of ISD to
the Minister of Information should be under
investigation by the Ghana Civil Service. If these
investigations are carried out it will reveal that
the petition is only part of a larger vicious
conspiracy against me. I demand that the
allegations in the petition are investigated
thoroughly.

It is unfortunate that the Enquirer newspaper was
used as a platform by elements out to discredit
me, and by extension, H.E. The President of Ghana,
who nominated me for the position of Director of
ISD. It is also unfortunate that the time and
energy spent on sabotage and scheming in this
matter could have been better applied to fixing
the dismal state of government communications. It
is only officials genuinely dedicated to Ghana who
are capable of implementing the Better Ghana
agenda of H.E. The President Prof. John Atta
Mills.

Source - Nee Agiri Barnor

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