POLICE ADMINISTRATION

Quartermaster Stores

ESTABLISHMENT
A. The Quartermaster Stores of the Ghana Police Service situated within the National Headquarters was established to procure clothing, equipment and other items needed for the effective operation of the service and supply to personnel periodically as spelt out in the Police Service Instructions.

B. Since its inception, the unit has had the following senior officers assuming the position of Quartermaster-General on the dates indicated in the table below.

C. The present Quartermaster-General is ACP./Mr. Isaac Alex Quainoo. He is ably assisted by Supt./Mrs. Habiba Y.A. Twumasi Sarpong (in-charge procurement) and DSP./Mr. William Kofi Sarpong (in-charge supplies). Some of the regions have officers in-charge of the stores who are responsible to their Regional Commanders and also the Quartermaster-General.

D. The unit has large storage facilities for Stationery, Clothing and Equipment, Station Stores, Hardware and Building Materials among others. These stores are controlled by some experienced personnel trained over the years in effective storekeeping and stock control.

FUNCTIONS
It is the responsibility of the Quartermaster Stores to procure Clothing and Equipment, etc from both foreign and local sources, provide storage facilities for the items and supply accordingly to members of the service. It is also the responsibility of the unit to keep the service running by providing office equipment and stationery to all the Regions/Divisions/Districts/Units/Stations and Posts and also supply tyres and batteries to our service vehicles, among other equally important functions.

• Receipt- When the items are delivered to the stores, they are subjected to rigorous inspection by a team made up of the Procurement Officer, Internal Auditors, the Storekeeper concerned and most importantly the supplier or his representative. The Storekeeper then receives the items and take then on ledger charge. However, if the items do not conform to our specification, they are rejected at the supplier’s expense.
  
• Supply/Issue- The Quartermaster Stores, Headquarters, is furnished with Nominal Rolls from all Regional and Divisional Commanders quarterly. This helps in collating the strength of each region and division during bulk supplies. The Regional and Divisional Quartermasters also submit comprehensive lists of all personnel in their respective areas. They are then supplied according to their strength for onward delivery to the personnel. The supplies system in the Police Service is centralized. All Regional and Divisional Quartermasters collect their stores from the Headquarters Quartermaster Stores. Decentralizing plans are being conceived by the Police Administration but before that, the necessary structures in terms of personnel and storage facilities need to be addressed.
  

PROJECTIONS As the strength of the service grows systematically, so do we expect our supply system to be much more effective. With the current strength of about 20,000 personnel and more recruits in our training schools about to add up to the number, the unit is struggling to meet the challenge. However, as Police Administration works around the clock to improve the image of the service and its attention focused on the excellent turn out personnel, the Quartermaster Stores is well positioned to achieve its objective.

CONSTRAINTS
The Unit is saddled with problems prominent among which are inadequate budgetary allocation and poor quality manpower.

1. As mentioned earlier, our strength keeps increasing with more intake of personnel. A lot of Divisions and Districts have been created and need to be provided with computers, typewriters, furniture and stationery. These new Divisions and Districts struggle everyday to deliver within their limited resources. Enough funds need to be provided to curb the situation.
2. Almost all the trained storekeepers were transferred to the General Duties some years back and untrained personnel brought in to fill the gap. Courses must be organized for these personnel to keep them abreast with basic store procedures

ACHIEVEMENTS
The unit has achieved a lot over the years under the various Quartermaster Generals who have worked tirelessly. Our effective procurement, storage, supply, monitoring and evaluation system is no doubt the envy of most organizations.
The unit has ensured that all personnel, irrespective of where they are stationed, are neatly dressed and those traveling to the United Nations for peacekeeping missions provided with the necessary accoutrement even at very short notice.
The unit has also succeeded in putting in place very effective mechanisms by discouraging personnel from selling accoutrements, a system that was prevalent some years back.