the third African to be entrusted with a department in the colony. In that capacity he sought to establish more vocational schools throughout the country. The following year he was made Chairman of the Kumasi College of Technology Council. In 1955 he was made Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Housing. Following the Gold Coast's independence as Ghana in 1957, Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah appointed Gardiner Establishment Secretary, making him the head of the Ghana Civil Service. During Gardiner's tenure the two frequently clashed. According to observers, the disagreements between them stemmed from their differing personalities; Gardiner was pragmatic, while Nkrumah was idealistic. Gardiner was often sought by lower level civil servants to shield them from political pressure. He worked to balance demands for Africanisation with professional competence in the bureaucracy. In his capacity as Establishment Secretary, he drafted a protocol that allowed Ghana to manage its own assets housed in British West African organisations until the relevant neighboring colonies could achieve independence. Nevertheless, Nkrumah withdrew Ghana's capital from the groups with the stated purpose of ensuring complete monetary independence from the United Kingdom. In 1958 Gardiner was serving as the Prime Minister's chief of staff. Nkrumah considered dispatching him as high commissioner to Pretoria, South Africa, but the idea was ultimately discarded, in part due to the difficulties in finding Gardiner's children the means to earn an education in the region. Late in his tenure he dismissed his sister from her nursing position for an unexcused extended leave of absence, straining his family ties. He later said, "I had no choice. Her action was clearly contrary to the regulations." In 1959 Gardiner was dismissed by Nkrumah for unknown reasons. In May he accepted a nomination to the post of Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). By taking the job his political position in Ghana was made neutral, but his overall reputation in the African continent was diminished, as others saw his UN role as an external imposition. Several African states that had close ties with Nkrumah were also unenthusiastic about his discontent with the Prime Minister. Gardiner moved to UNECA's headquarters in Addis Ababa on 17 May, but following the outbreak of civil war in the newly independent Republic of the Congo he was appointed consultant in public administration to the chief of the civilian mission of the UN Operation in the Congo (known