Gbevlo Lartey Fined in Court

Lt. Col Larry Gbevlo Lartey,National Security Co-ordinator of Ghana.
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Wednesday December 8, 2010
An Accra High Court has slapped GH¢ 300 cost against Lt. Col Larry Gbevlo Lartey, the National Security Co-ordinator for failing to appear before it in the case in which former staff of National Security Council (NSC) are suing the co-ordinator together with the Attorney-General for sacking them and not paying them their end-of-service benefits.

Neither the National Security Co-ordinator nor his representative except for one occasion has been appearing before the court as the first defendant of the suit since the case was called for the first time on October 28, 2010 but the representative of the AG has been honouring the court’s invitation except yesterday when he failed to appear.

Apart from October 28, subsequent adjournments were on November 8, November 26 and December 7, 2010 but in all the dates, the Security capo failed to make appearances compelling the court presided over by Justice C.J. Honyenuga of the Court of Appeal to award cost against Gbevlo-Lartey and another GH¢ 300 cost against the AG.

When the case was called Captain Rtd. Nkrabea Effah-Darteh, counsel for the dismissed security officers complained to the court about the National Security Co-ordinator’s attitude towards the matter saying there has not been a single date that he (Mr. Gbevlo-Lartey) had appeared before the court.

He told the court that most of the plaintiffs are not residing in Accra and have had to travel from all over the country to attend the court’s sitting and urged the judge to award cost of GH¢ 1,000 against the defendants.

The plaintiffs numbering 88 including Kenneth Gyan Kesseh are seeking a declaration that each of the 88 plaintiffs is entitled to be paid his or her benefit as well as an order directing the authorities to pay them their benefits upon termination of appointment as is consistent within the conditions governing their employment as staff of the NSC Secretariat.

In their statement of claim, the plaintiffs are saying that, they were fully employed regular staff of the NSC Secretariat both in Accra and various parts of the country.

According to them, they were all employed under the security intelligence Agencies law of 1996 Act 526 and the other relevant laws governing the public service after being interviewed and examined thoroughly.

They claimed even though the President acknowledged their dedicated and loyal service to the state, each of them had his appointment terminated as staff of the NCS as they were wrongly perceived as political appointees of the previous political administration under President JA Kufuor.

They said although they have been paid a three months salary in a partial fulfillment of the conditions governing termination they were still entitled to their end of service benefit.

The plaintiff said when they petitioned the authorities for payment to be done, it was ignored. Again they said their solicitors wrote series of letters praying for the payment but to no avail.

“It is obvious that unless the 88 plaintiffs seek the intervention of the courts, the defendants have no intention of satisfying the regulations governing the public service which includes payment of just earned benefit upon termination of appointment” they stressed.

However, the defendants have denied that the plaintiffs were sacked because they were perceived as political appointees of the previous administration but said their appointments were terminated on grounds that their services were no longer required.

The defendants said the plaintiffs were paid 3 months' salary as the full payment due them and further contended that the plaintiffs are entitled to any end-of-service benefits as alleged in their conditions of service and therefore would put them to strict proof.

The Defendants submitted that they would raise a preliminary-legal point during the hearing to suggest that the National Security Coordinator, Gbevlo Lartey, is not a proper person or body to be sued in this matter and therefore would seek the court to strike off the case against him.

Sitting continues on December 17, 2010.