While the ministry of Food and Agriculture prepares to launch a new policy document for the irrigation sector, there are reports of a fast dwindling human resource capacity at the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority.
Currently the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Daniel L. Lamptey is five months past retirement, but has been asked to stay on till a replacement is found for him. In the same vein his two deputies, Daniel Nyarko Ohemeng (In charge of Agronomy) and B.S Owusu deputy CEO in Charge of Engineering are also well past retirement.
“The more experienced staff have grown old and are retiring in unacceptable numbers, while recruitment for replacement has not been allowed in the immediate past years”, said the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Kwesi Ahwoi when he inaugurated the new Ghana Irrigation Authority (GIDA) Board in Accra last week.
According to Mr. Ahwoi the situation has created “a yawning gap” at the Irrigation Authority which needs to be filled with equally competent human resource.
Lampooning the situation the situation the minister observed that many of the positions at the ministry have been occupied by people in an “Acting” capacity for between one to eight years. Even two members of the board have been acting at top management positions at the agric ministry fro some time now. One of them, Dr. Kwame Ameza, has been an Acting Director for Extension services for over three years.
The minister observed that “This situation does not encourage young people in the service to aspire to reach top level positions”. “Is there a position in the Civil Service regulations tagged, ‘Acting’”?, the minister quipped satirically.
In addition to this misfortune, the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority has been without a board since 2003, and the minister cautioned that Ghana can no longer take irrigation for granted since recent global climate change and food crisis show that “we can no longer depend on rain-fed crop production if we must attain food security”
Recently, we published in the Volume 2, Number 22 issue of the Financial Intelligence under the headline, “Ghana trapped in “World Bank vicious cycle” the high price the nation has been paying for the freeze on recruitment in the public sector.
The story specifically mentioned the agricultural sector as one of the hardest hit by this policy. Today the Minister for Agriculture, Hon Kwesi Ahwoi has made the same observation.
Meanwhile the Hon. Kwesi Ahwoi has announced that as part of its medium term program for infusing new life back into the irrigation sector of agricultural industry, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture will soon launch a new irrigation policy document for the country.
The document which is currently in an advanced stage of finalisation is expected to provide strategies and regulatory measures necessary for the growth of the sector.
Disclosing this at the inauguration of the board for Ghana Irrigation Authority, Minister for Food and Agriculture Kwesi Ahwoi said the new policy among other things takes into account the aspirations of irrigators in both the public and private sectors.
Mr Ahwoi said the new policy also seeks to make operation and maintenance of irrigation projects more participatory through the involvement of farmers in all aspects management at all levels.
“This will improve cost recovery and ultimately enhance the performance of the sub-sector and thereby ensure a more sustainable management of both the facilities and the water resources”, the minister promised.
The minister tasked the board to make budgetary allocations for the maintenance of the irrigation dams. He observed that most of the dams have their canals silted with weeds and debris. This trend, he tasked the board to reverse by making adequate budgetary allocations for constant maintenance of the dams.
The board is under the chairmanship of Mallam Issah Seidu, a former Senior Director at the Ministry and Ghana’s former representative at the World Food Programme in Rome. It has Richmond Evans Appiah, (Irrigation Department) Awuah Peasah, (from Ministry of Finance) Dr. Kwame Amezah( Ministry of Agriculture) Dr. Micarious Yanguory (University of Ghana) and Daniel Adjetey Adjei (Ghana Water Company Ltd) as members.
The other members are Dr. Joseph Feening (CSIR) Dr Kwabena Kankam Yeboah, Kpembewura Kibashi, Nana Kwabena Agyei Baah and Mr. Daniel L. Lamptey.
By: Justice Lee Adoboe
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