The dismissed Acting Director of the Information Services Department (ISD), Nee Agiri Barnor is demanding a thorough investigation into a petition against him by five officers of the department to the Minister of Information asking for his removal for alleged poor leadership style and not being a team player as well as allegedly failing to lay out a vision for the ISD. Agiri Barnor says a thorough investigation will establish that he was a victim of “a larger vicious conspiracy” of which the petition against him is a mere part. The government per a letter signed by Mr J. Bebako-Mensah, secretary to President Mills terminated Agiri Barnor’s appointment and suggested he was to be reassigned. But in a statement he has issued, Agiri Barnor says it appears he stepped on some toes while doing his best to run his office according to the rules and constrained by a rather lean budget. “Unfortunately, it appears I stepped on the toes of some people who became hell bent on removing me. Efforts at communicating government policies were consistently and systematically sabotaged. The Department for example had only GHC 45,000 to carry out public education on policy throughout the eleven months I served at ISD. When communications to the public on government policy failed the scapegoat became ISD.” Below is Mr Barnor’s statement STATEMENT BY NEE AGIRI BARNOR, FORMER AG. DIRECTOR INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT I have served H.E. The President of the Republic of Ghana and the nation diligently and to the best of my ability in the position of Acting Director of the Information Services Department (ISD) for the last eleven months. I was nominated for the position of Director ISD by H.E. The President, where I sought to uphold the highest standards of the Ghana Civil Service. I encouraged all the officers with whom I served to emulate the same. Indeed, the period I spent at ISD is marked by my dedication to ensuring that the Department operated according to the rules. My objective was simply to ensure that government policies would be communicated effectively to the people of Ghana. H.E. The President of Ghana instructed all his appointees, Ministers, civil servants and indeed all Ghanaians that under his government it would not be “business as usual” which included government communications with the people of Ghana. This was my guiding principle. Unfortunately, it appears I stepped on the toes of some people who became hell bent on removing me. Efforts at communicating government policies were consistently and systematically sabotaged. The Department for example had only GHC 45,000 to carry out public education on policy throughout the eleven months I served at ISD. When communications to the public on government policy failed the scapegoat became ISD. Any insinuation that I have had any dealings with the Daily Guide newspaper and in particular with any of its publications is false. There is no political benefit in this approach for me, or for the cause I have stood for in over 30 years in politics and public service in Ghana. I have never been responsible for any publication in the Daily Guide. The petition submitted by five officers of ISD to the Minister of Information should be under investigation by the Ghana Civil Service. If these investigations are carried out it will reveal that the petition is only part of a larger vicious conspiracy against me. I demand that the allegations in the petition are investigated thoroughly. It is unfortunate that the Enquirer newspaper was used as a platform by elements out to discredit me, and by extension, H.E. The President of Ghana, who nominated me for the position of Director of ISD. It is also unfortunate that the time and energy spent on sabotage and scheming in this matter could have been better applied to fixing the dismal state of government communications. It is only officials genuinely dedicated to Ghana who are capable of implementing the Better Ghana agenda of H.E. The President Prof. John Atta Mills. Nee Agiri Barnor Wednesday, September 22, 2010