He said about 80 per cent of the workforce was not trained in any field of disaster management, which he said was affecting efficiency and quality of work. Brig Gen Vib-Sanziri at a ceremony to hand over to his secessor, Mr Eric Nana Agyeman-Prempeh in Accra, noted that the nature of the job demanded some training in the related field to enhance the mandate of the Organisation.

He urged Nana Agyeman-Prempeh to steer the affairs of the institution to memorable heights in line with its vision of making Ghana a resilient country, capable of withstanding the rigours of hazards and therefore mitigating the impact.   “I have played my part. My vision for NADMO was to reorganise the institution to function like any government institution and be capable of effectively and efficiently conducting its core business of managing all manner of emergencies.

“To get to this end state, I had push to get the new ACT, ACT 927 passed and received presidential assent in September 2016,” he said and urged the new Director-General to embrace it, work with it to achieve the mandate. Brig Gen Vib-Sanziri said in a bid to restructure the system, a board was set to reorganise the organogram of the institution to reflect realities and make the secretariats function effectively.

That, he said, was completed with the support from the Public Services Commission and urged his successor to fine- tune it and implement it for the good of the institution.  “Another area of concern that has been restructured is the stores procedures. It was a bit chaotic but sanity has prevailed. You can still polish it up,” he said adding, “some foundations have been laid and you can continue from there”.

He mentioned lack of training; inadequate logistic support; insufficient budgetary allocation for in-housing administration and late approval for relief purchases as some of the challenges that must be tackled head-on to make the institution effective.  The Brig Gen pledged his willingness to offer free consultancy service for the in-coming administration should the need arise.

He, therefore, thanked the staff for their support and dedicated service, saying, “my short period of stay with you would not have been fruitful but for the support and advice that I got from the staff”.

Nana Agyeman-Prempeh, on his part, promised to work with all irrespective of their political affiliations to move the institution forward. He said NADMO needs to go beyond providing relief support to distressed persons to creating the awareness to forestall the occurrence of disasters.     “The Meteorological Services Department has given strong indications of heavy rainfall this year. Our job is to bring so much awareness to the coming rains, and collaborate with all major stakeholders to ensure that the causes of flooding in our country, particularly in the flashpoints … can be removed in the short terms,” he added.

He also expressed the hope to collaborate with the sector Ministry to establish NADMO Training Centre for continuous training of staff and volunteers for the huge task ahead.The Centre, he said, would also be used to coordinate education on disaster prevention and management for the benefit of the broader majority of the Ghanaian people.

 “It is time for NADMO to be in the news for only the right reasons, and I call on all of you to walk and work with me, in good and in bad times, so that we can together contribute our quota and more meaningfully to a new dawn of development and prosperity for Ghana and the Ghanaian people,” he added.

 Mr Osafo Marfo, the Senior Minister, urged the new management to ensure that the NADMO Fund was operationalise to serve its purpose.