NACOB structure weak, outmoded – Quantson

A former Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB), Kofi Bentum Quantson, has called for a revamp of the anti-narcotics agency to empower it to crack down on drug-related crime.

Mr Quantson was of the opinion that the “current structure is weak and outmoded” because it does not have prosecutorial powers.

“We have to persevere to educate and enforce laws but until it is restructured our efforts will be minimal,” he told Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on Class FM’s 505.

The former Director of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) believed an upgrade to commission status with enough resources will inure to the benefit of the fight against narcotics.

His views resonate with the opinion of Mr Akrasi Sarpong, also a former NACOB boss, who feels the fight against drugs must be modernised.

According to him, it costs so much to fight drug trafficking, hence most funds allocated by government to NACOB go into reducing the supply of drugs.

In his view, the best approach will be to structure NACOB like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with its own Commissioner General and its demand reduction division to work hand in hand to make the fight against drug trafficking easier and effective.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with ClassFMonline.com on Tuesday, 27 June, 2017, Mr Sarpong said: “I think that NACOB should be structured just like the IRS. There should be a commission, then there should be a law enforcement wing that has its commissioner. There should be a Commissioner General, then a demand reduction division which deals solely with education and demand reduction and they are given their own budget.”

He explained that in that way “the two arms will see themselves as partners because the IRS people don’t see themselves more important than Customs and Customs don’t see themselves more important than IRS. In that way, the two arms or the two wings will be clear. So that is the way we should go about it. That is my view”.

Mr Sarpong added: “When you put money in NACOB…invariably all the money goes into supply reduction [and] intelligence work, and intelligence takes a lot of money. You have to do human surveillance – the vehicles you have to use to follow people and all that is not easy. It takes so much money so let us have a budget, let us have a wing and then we know that we are giving them this money and they are liaising with the drug law enforcement unit of the police. It is the easier or the best approach than what we have now.”

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