Kwame Asuah Takyi – Comptroller-General of Ghana Immigration Service
The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has granted
study leave to 296 officers, representing 4.93 per cent of its current human
resource instead of the usual 1.5 per cent.
This first ever monumental increment was made
known when the Comptroller-General of Immigration (CGI), Mr. Kwame Asuah Takyi,
addressed a durbar of service personnel at the national headquarters in Accra,
last Friday, on study leave approvals for the 2019/2020 academic year and
related matters.
According to him, the decision for the increment
for the 2019/2020 study leave was borne out of the need for strategic manpower
development and to build a strong knowledge based organization as captured in
the GIS’s five year strategic plan with ‘learning organization’ as one of its
core values.
The CGI lamented over the current study leave policy
which was last reviewed in 2011, ever since it was instituted in 2002. “The old
quota was set based on the workforce at that time but had become inadequate
considering the current numbers,” he noted. “Our numbers have increased and we
will be denying many if we do not review the policy,” he added.
He further indicated that several junior
officers, who had worked between seven to 13 years and had applied for study
leave on several occasions, were refused for the reason of a ‘seniority clause’
in the study leave policy. “This unfairness is worrying, especially when senior
officers could pursue second Masters Degree programmes at the expense of junior
officers who struggle just to get the opportunity to pursue First Degree over a
policy of seniority,” he added.
He also explained that the decision to increase
the quota for junior officers for the 2019/2020 academic year was because most
of the officers would undertake their respective course of study on the basis
of long distance and over the weekend, which would not affect their working
schedule.
Mr. Takyi assured the officers that all
legitimate concerns in the study leave policy would be considered to ensure
transparency and fairness in the application and selection processes for the
benefit of the service as well as personnel.
“Therefore a committee to be chaired by the
Deputy Comptroller-General in-charge of Legal, Research and Monitoring, Madam
Victoria N. Baaba Asare, has been constituted to address inherent challenges
arising from the study leave policy in recent times and review it to respond to
present exigencies” he added.
He however noted that the attainment of a higher educational qualification by an officer as contained in Regulation 17(6) of the Immigration Service Regulation, 2016 [L.I. 2245], would not guarantee automatic promotion by reason of only a qualification.
