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The Ghana Armed Forces is one of the most disciplined military institutions in the world, but why the leadership of such a noble profession sat down for importing companies to fleece soldiers who went on peace-keeping duties remains a puzzle. Information pieced together by The Chronicle indicates that importing companies which transact business with the Armed Forces have duped soldiers on peace-keeping duties to the tune of almost $500,000, but the Military High Command appears not to be doing much to help the affected soldiers redeem their money. What has even rankled the soldiers is the allegation that some top military officers who are on retirement are behind the formation of some of these companies, which have used subtle means to squeeze the money from the soldiers. Investigations by The Chronicle revealed that anytime soldiers are preparing to go on peace keeping duties outside the country, these importing companies, which have been sanctioned by the Ghana Armed Forces, would flock to their training grounds at Bundase to transact business with them. In most of the cases, the companies convince the soldiers to allow them import items such as fridges, corn mills and electrical gadgets on their behalf, whilst serving outside the country. The cost of the items imported is then deducted at source from the peace-keeping money paid to the soldiers. This is after the soldiers have filled forms indicating the items they want, which also serves as an agreement between they and the importers. The Chronicle gathered, however, that some of the companies (names withheld for now), after collecting the value of the items requested by some of the soldiers from their superiors through deductions at source, failed to deliver without proffering any tangible explanations. The conduct of these companies is said to have severely affected the soldiers, especially those who use more than half of the allowances that would have accrued to them to import some of the aforementioned items. This reporter learnt that at a point in time, some of the angry soldiers even arrested a secretary to one of the companies, which has duped them, and attempted to detain her in the guardroom, but the action was stopped by the senior officers. Some of the soldiers told The Chronicle that the training that they go through at the Bundase training camp before they emplane to carry peace-keeping duties outside the country, mostly in Liberia, Congo, and Lebanon among others, was very tedious, therefore, for the companies to fleece them of their hard-earned money was unfortunate. When contacted, the Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Armed Forces, Col. Mbawine Atintande, told The Chronicle that such an arrangement, which also serves as a welfare scheme, exists in some of the units of the Armed Forces. He, however, dismissed the suggestion that the leadership of the Army had failed to act after the issue was brought to their attention. To him soldiers must be courageous to approach their leaders, especially their Commanding Officers (CO), with whatever problems they may have, instead of rushing to the media. �Who did they report to, and did the officer fail to do something about their problem?� he asked. When he was told that the soldiers did inform the appropriate authorities, Col. Atintande doubted that, insisting that if such a complaint had been lodged, the soldiers would have been told about whatever action their superiors had initiated.