THE nation is under siege. It is like we are being hemmed in on all sides. We have a new government that is still struggling to plant its feet firmly in the ground while the New Patriotic Party (NPP), that has suddenly, against all expectations, found itself in opposition, will not relent in its sustained pressure on the new administration.
On the international level, a new term has gained notoriety – the credit crunch. It has given a platform for bad and corrupt governments who can now find easy excuse for their failures.
On the home front, there is something gnawing at us which will not stop. The pain has sent us into frenzy, forcing desperate and sometimes elusive solutions out of us. I am referring to the road accidents that have become daily occurrences these days and the questions are; where next and how many casualties?
The Motor Traffic and Transport Unit of the Ghana Police Service, in response to the menace swore to enforce speed limits on the highways. Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Daniel Avorga, the man in charge of outfit was confident that he and his lieutenants are up to the task. According to him, motorised personnel in groups of between four and six will be deployed on the highways to check speed limits while educating drivers on the need to exercise caution on the roads.
The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC), on their part came up with a bold decision — to install speed limiters on all passenger vehicles in the country to check speeding, which has been identified as a major cause of accidents.
The Director of Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, Mr David Adonteng, was on record telling the Daily Graphic that five companies have been identified for the installation of the device which will ensure that vehicles do not go beyond 100 kilometres per hour (km/h) on the highways.
At what could be described as a crisis meeting held last Tuesday, the Ministry of Roads and Highways and other interest groups in the transport industry came to certain decisions all aimed at curing the same ailment of road accidents. These include prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages at lorry stations, checking overloading of vehicles, speed checks and taking steps to clear broken down vehicles from the roads.
The problem has become so huge that every state institution seems to be joining the solution bandwagon. So the Ministry of Health also announced that it is going to collaborate with the Ghana Armed Forces to ferry accident victims with helicopters to medical facilities. At least if we cannot stop the accidents, we should be able to transport victims quickly for medical attention, so it means.
The Women’s Aglow International, went beyond the human dimension and moved into the spiritual realm by organising a special session on Sunday, March 22, 2009 to seek divine intervention to end the carnage.
Looking through all the remedies prescribed for this national calamity, one could hardly find anything new. The Police have always assured the motoring public of their determination to clampdown on careless driving maintain sanity on the roads. They have always threatened to deal ruthlessly with reckless driving and impose severe sanctions on recalcitrant drivers.
There have been a few heavily-publicised operations in the past to check speeding and other traffic offences but which faded into nothingness in no time. A few drivers may suffer and heaps of praises conferred on the police for a good job done and that ends the matter.
Where is the hope that this time, things will be better? The problems that existed yesterday which made highway patrols difficult and almost impossible still exist. The police simply lack the manpower and the requisite logistics to perform. That is why they concentrate their operations in Accra and the other big towns checking ‘papers’ on routine basis.
Highway patrol means being mobile and fast. It also means being in a position to communicate with others in the patrol team in case of reckless driving or suspected highway robbery. Are we up to the task?
Ideally, the police should have their own helicopters to patrol the highways and for rescue operations in emergencies. I know somebody will begin to say that we do not have funds for those things. Yes, when it comes to good things or the national interest, we never get the funds. However, we can dip into the same coffers to fund frivolities for the aggrandisement of a few.
The air ambulances that are to be provided by the Ghana Armed Forces sound quite interesting. We have failed miserably on the ground, so are we going to do better in the air?
How many helicopters equipped with life-saving devices are in the fleet of the Ghana Armed Forces? Remember one of such aircrafts crashed into the Atiwa Forest a few years ago killing all on board including the accident victims that were being brought to Accra. Has there been any replacement?
The next question: If the GAF is able to provide the choppers wherewill the victims be sent to? You know why? Even the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, the nation’s largest hospital lacks the facilities to cope with major emergency situations. Visit the Accident Centre at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and see how people with broken limbs and torn flesh are left on the ground groaning in pain, then you can picture where we are as a nation.
Our city roads have not been designed to handle emergencies. Can you imagine an ambulance trapped in heavy traffic with its sirens wailing miserably without any response from drivers who themselves are minding their own problems?
These days too, one cannot tell whether an ambulance is carrying someone who needs urgent attention or someone who has already passed on to the other world. The police have not been able to enforce the law on the use of sirens, though they keep on reminding the public about the existence of a law to that effect.
There is no doubt that we are confronted with a serious national problem. But that is not solved by any don quixotic approach.
The NRSC has never wavered in its public education campaigns. This idea of speed limiters is not new. Where are they going to start from and where will it end? Road safety work is not for one institution and a breakdown in any part of the chain will affect the whole process.
There are many who have acquired driving licenses through dubious means, most often with the connivance of officials of the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA). The crusade against road accidents must start from the corridors of the DVLA.
The MTTU, as it is now, cannot cope with the assignment of maintaining law and order on the roads both in terms of personnel and logistics. Having identified road accidents and reckless driving as a major national problem, we need to invest more in enforcing motor traffic regulations.
It should be possible for the police to be well equipped to patrol the highways not only for offensive drivers and highway crimes but to effect rescue missions in the event of accidents. That is why a few helicopters for this purpose will not be described as a misplaced priority.
All the offences being mentioned in recent times including alcoholism, over speeding, wrong overtaking, driving without valid driver’s licence or without roadworthy certificate are not new. What we have lacked over the years are the will and the honesty to enforce these laws and others.
Highway patrols should not be done sporadically as panic measures. They should be a regular feature on the schedule of the MTTU, or whichever institution that will be tasked to perform that duty.
Our national response to emergency situations cannot be described as the best. In a bad situation such as we have found ourselves in now, we are tempted to react in a manner that in the long run will not serve any purpose. We need to confront some painful realities. That is, we lack the capacity to do most of the things we are dreaming of. But once the will is there, there will be a way.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
AGEING, BUT NOT GROWING (MARCH 24, 2009)
On March 6, 2009, we went through, as we have been doing all the years, the motion of celebrating our freedom from colonialism. The children, as usual, marched in the scorching tropical sun for hours, just as their grandparents and parents before them did, to salute the National Flag.
In the national capital, our President, just as has been customary of all others who have occupied the throne, took the salute as the schoolchildren marched past. The celebration would not end without flowery speeches being made in which the tired children were promised that they would come to inherit a better Ghana than their grandparents and parents came to meet it.
After a good evening meal and drowning of a few gallons of wine, spirit and beer, the day had actually come to an end and the principal characters go on retirement to wait for another March Six.
At 52, even as a nation, Ghana has come of age. But has it been growing over the years? It is easy to answer this question by looking at those in our age group including those who are slightly younger or older than us. Immediately, names will begin to drop — China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and many others, of course not including our contemporaries on the continent who are in that leaking boat like us.
Some time ago, we (African, Latin American and most of the Asian countries) were being described as underdeveloped countries. We complained bitterly that that description did not suit us, since we believed that no matter the pace, we are also making some progress. To accommodate our sentiments, the rest of the world did us a favour by describing us developing countries.
Most of the Asian and Latin American countries, through pragmatic policies and visionary leadership over the years, have eased themselves out of that group of developing countries and for lack of better description are now called Emerging New Economies (ENE). Some are virtually at the doorsteps of the so-called developed countries but for a few development indices and the hypocrisy of the so-called league of developed countries to admit the truth that their days of glory are gone past.
Even though to soothe our psychological pain we may pretend to share things in common, there is no way we can belong to the group of countries such as Brazil, Argentina, South Korea, India, Singapore, Malaysia and the rest of the Asian Tigers. China’s methodical and determined advancement in science, technology and commerce was for years, blinded by Western propaganda which never gave any credit to that nation until the phenomenal explosion of China’s dominance on the international stage.
In comparative terms, it is easy to see a clear distinction between Ghana and its contemporaries in Asia and Latin America and that distinction does not make it look as if the country had been developing. What about when we take a look at our own progress over the years. I think we can only see ourselves developing if we are able to make improvement over what existed in the past. In that case even if the improvement is slow it still will amount to development, albeit not an encouraging one.
Unfortunately, that is not even the case. The general infrastructure existing today cannot seriously be said to be better than what existed in the past. If you take the educational infrastructure of today, it cannot compare favourably with what was in existence in the 60s and 70s when those who are managing the affairs of this country today were at school age. In a real developing situation, the children of today should have been enjoying better educational facilities than what their parents came to meet. Is that the case in the country?
The development of health facilities and other social amenities like water and sanitation facilities cannot match the pace of population growth.
Agriculturally, the country cannot in any way claim that it is doing better than it did 20 to 30 or more years ago. Food production is conspicuously lower than consumption and for a small country like Ghana with its relatively abundant resources, it is a sad commentary that it has to import food items from countries like Vietnam, Thailand, China, Burkina Faso, Mali, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa.
It is a sad spectacle to see the youth struggling in the scorching sun to sell grapes and apples from South Africa, Portugal, France and Spain, when locally produced oranges, mangoes, pear, banana, pineapple and other fruits rot away in the bush. From the streets, imported wine, fruit juices and vegetables dominate the shelves in our supermarkets. That itself tells a story of the state of the country’s agro-processing industry. The dominance of imported frozen meat of all sorts from different countries, a lot with questionable quality, is an indictment on our poultry and livestock industry.
Strangely, at 52, we still take pride in counting ourselves among the biggest producers of raw cocoa beans, unprocessed wood and unrefined gold. The industrial sector has virtually been stripped bare and the only thing we have improved upon over the years is the selling of foreign goods.
Every new government brings new hope. The President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, rekindled the dream of turning the Afram and Accra plains into the food basket of the nation when he harped upon the subject in his State of the Nation Address to Parliament three weeks ago. It is the hope of Ghanaians that this time it will not be another of those political talks that receive wild acclamation upon delivery and later consigned to the dustbins of history.
This is a country that has so much in abundance for food sufficiency that its worry should have been where to send the surplus. Unfortunately, we see the Volta flowing wastefully into the sea while we put severe strain on our little foreign reserves to import food from countries that come nowhere near us in terms of natural resources.
Ours had never been a question of resources but lack of ideas and commitment. We have turned the whole country into a giant trading post and everybody, including ministers of state who should spearhead the development drive, is in a frenzy to become net importers of all manner of commodities to the neglect of local industry.
The Accra-Tema Motorway, for instance, paints a sordid picture of how we have deteriorated over the years. A road which was constructed in the 60s to serve as a conduit between the national capital and the emerging industrial and port city of Tema and to announce our arrival as a newly independent nation has now become a death trap.
It is more or less a town road snaking through various residential and industrial settlements without the necessary corresponding upgrading and improvement. Driving on the motorway in the night can be a terrible experience. The lights that were to illuminate the road, by some grand design, do not function, and if they do, on only certain stretches of the road.
An attempt to bring some modernity at Tetteh-Quarshie has become a national disaster because we have chosen money over convenience and advancement. Matters are not better at the Tema end of the motorway because the small circle designed for fewer number of vehicles in the 60s cannot cope with the large volume of vehicles that flow from Accra and Tema towards the Aflao-Togo route, the Ho-Akosombo and beyond and the numerous settlements that have sprung up between Tema and Afienya.
Where we need to apply a little bit of imagination and diligently use our national resources to serve the nation, we find excuse in ‘the no money’ syndrome. But when it comes to frivolities we are second to none. That is why we are prepared to engage in endless and useless debate on how many vehicles should be given to a retiring President who already has more than enough to make a comfortable living for the rest of his life.
Gradually and maybe unconsciously, we are becoming a nation of cynics who use the greater part of our time, not thinking about moving this country forward but plotting how to dupe the nation or ditch one another. We dwell more on seeking revenge than focusing on the future and strategising for national development.
Our nation Ghana has come of age, but seriously speaking is suffering from stunted growth. Shall we say another opportunity has fallen on our laps with the arrival of a new government when we should endeavour to go beyond celebrating independence with march pasts in the scorching sun and point at landmarks as we progress as a nation?
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
In the national capital, our President, just as has been customary of all others who have occupied the throne, took the salute as the schoolchildren marched past. The celebration would not end without flowery speeches being made in which the tired children were promised that they would come to inherit a better Ghana than their grandparents and parents came to meet it.
After a good evening meal and drowning of a few gallons of wine, spirit and beer, the day had actually come to an end and the principal characters go on retirement to wait for another March Six.
At 52, even as a nation, Ghana has come of age. But has it been growing over the years? It is easy to answer this question by looking at those in our age group including those who are slightly younger or older than us. Immediately, names will begin to drop — China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and many others, of course not including our contemporaries on the continent who are in that leaking boat like us.
Some time ago, we (African, Latin American and most of the Asian countries) were being described as underdeveloped countries. We complained bitterly that that description did not suit us, since we believed that no matter the pace, we are also making some progress. To accommodate our sentiments, the rest of the world did us a favour by describing us developing countries.
Most of the Asian and Latin American countries, through pragmatic policies and visionary leadership over the years, have eased themselves out of that group of developing countries and for lack of better description are now called Emerging New Economies (ENE). Some are virtually at the doorsteps of the so-called developed countries but for a few development indices and the hypocrisy of the so-called league of developed countries to admit the truth that their days of glory are gone past.
Even though to soothe our psychological pain we may pretend to share things in common, there is no way we can belong to the group of countries such as Brazil, Argentina, South Korea, India, Singapore, Malaysia and the rest of the Asian Tigers. China’s methodical and determined advancement in science, technology and commerce was for years, blinded by Western propaganda which never gave any credit to that nation until the phenomenal explosion of China’s dominance on the international stage.
In comparative terms, it is easy to see a clear distinction between Ghana and its contemporaries in Asia and Latin America and that distinction does not make it look as if the country had been developing. What about when we take a look at our own progress over the years. I think we can only see ourselves developing if we are able to make improvement over what existed in the past. In that case even if the improvement is slow it still will amount to development, albeit not an encouraging one.
Unfortunately, that is not even the case. The general infrastructure existing today cannot seriously be said to be better than what existed in the past. If you take the educational infrastructure of today, it cannot compare favourably with what was in existence in the 60s and 70s when those who are managing the affairs of this country today were at school age. In a real developing situation, the children of today should have been enjoying better educational facilities than what their parents came to meet. Is that the case in the country?
The development of health facilities and other social amenities like water and sanitation facilities cannot match the pace of population growth.
Agriculturally, the country cannot in any way claim that it is doing better than it did 20 to 30 or more years ago. Food production is conspicuously lower than consumption and for a small country like Ghana with its relatively abundant resources, it is a sad commentary that it has to import food items from countries like Vietnam, Thailand, China, Burkina Faso, Mali, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa.
It is a sad spectacle to see the youth struggling in the scorching sun to sell grapes and apples from South Africa, Portugal, France and Spain, when locally produced oranges, mangoes, pear, banana, pineapple and other fruits rot away in the bush. From the streets, imported wine, fruit juices and vegetables dominate the shelves in our supermarkets. That itself tells a story of the state of the country’s agro-processing industry. The dominance of imported frozen meat of all sorts from different countries, a lot with questionable quality, is an indictment on our poultry and livestock industry.
Strangely, at 52, we still take pride in counting ourselves among the biggest producers of raw cocoa beans, unprocessed wood and unrefined gold. The industrial sector has virtually been stripped bare and the only thing we have improved upon over the years is the selling of foreign goods.
Every new government brings new hope. The President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, rekindled the dream of turning the Afram and Accra plains into the food basket of the nation when he harped upon the subject in his State of the Nation Address to Parliament three weeks ago. It is the hope of Ghanaians that this time it will not be another of those political talks that receive wild acclamation upon delivery and later consigned to the dustbins of history.
This is a country that has so much in abundance for food sufficiency that its worry should have been where to send the surplus. Unfortunately, we see the Volta flowing wastefully into the sea while we put severe strain on our little foreign reserves to import food from countries that come nowhere near us in terms of natural resources.
Ours had never been a question of resources but lack of ideas and commitment. We have turned the whole country into a giant trading post and everybody, including ministers of state who should spearhead the development drive, is in a frenzy to become net importers of all manner of commodities to the neglect of local industry.
The Accra-Tema Motorway, for instance, paints a sordid picture of how we have deteriorated over the years. A road which was constructed in the 60s to serve as a conduit between the national capital and the emerging industrial and port city of Tema and to announce our arrival as a newly independent nation has now become a death trap.
It is more or less a town road snaking through various residential and industrial settlements without the necessary corresponding upgrading and improvement. Driving on the motorway in the night can be a terrible experience. The lights that were to illuminate the road, by some grand design, do not function, and if they do, on only certain stretches of the road.
An attempt to bring some modernity at Tetteh-Quarshie has become a national disaster because we have chosen money over convenience and advancement. Matters are not better at the Tema end of the motorway because the small circle designed for fewer number of vehicles in the 60s cannot cope with the large volume of vehicles that flow from Accra and Tema towards the Aflao-Togo route, the Ho-Akosombo and beyond and the numerous settlements that have sprung up between Tema and Afienya.
Where we need to apply a little bit of imagination and diligently use our national resources to serve the nation, we find excuse in ‘the no money’ syndrome. But when it comes to frivolities we are second to none. That is why we are prepared to engage in endless and useless debate on how many vehicles should be given to a retiring President who already has more than enough to make a comfortable living for the rest of his life.
Gradually and maybe unconsciously, we are becoming a nation of cynics who use the greater part of our time, not thinking about moving this country forward but plotting how to dupe the nation or ditch one another. We dwell more on seeking revenge than focusing on the future and strategising for national development.
Our nation Ghana has come of age, but seriously speaking is suffering from stunted growth. Shall we say another opportunity has fallen on our laps with the arrival of a new government when we should endeavour to go beyond celebrating independence with march pasts in the scorching sun and point at landmarks as we progress as a nation?
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
DESTINATION INSPECTION COMPANIES...Are they still relevant? (TUESDAY, MARCH 17)
IN the year 2000, the first destination inspection company (DIC) pitched camp in town to do business in the country. Since then, three other DICs, namely, BIVAC International, Inspection and Control Services and Ghana Link Network, have joined the Gateway Services Limited (GSL) to engage in some core businesses on behalf of the Government of Ghana and the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS).
These DICs were engaged to do price qualification and classification of goods on behalf of the government, build price database for CEPS and subsequently transfer the know-how to CEPS at the end of their contract terms so that CEPS could take over those responsibilities.
As payment for their services, these DICs receive one per cent commission on all transactions made on behalf of the government.
The idea of the DICs became relevant apparently under the assumption that CEPS was deficient in the technological know-how and human capacity to effectively and efficiently perform those functions ceded to the DICs.
To prepare for the ultimate taking over of the job specifications of the DICs, CEPS took certain steps, including attachment of its staff to these DICs for on-the-job training, while organising overseas training programmes for core staff in the relevant fields.
CEPS also invested in space and equipment by inaugurating a fully equipped and furnished Classification and Valuation Unit at Ridge in Accra in anticipation of fully taking over all core destination inspection functions by January 2009.
This is because apart from the GSL, whose original 10-year contract was due to end in 2010, all the other DICs were to end their operations by December 2008. Even though a one-year extension contract was given to them, the idea was to prepare the DICs for a gradual withdrawal, while CEPS consolidates its control over destination inspection.
Mr Emmanuel Doku, the CEPS Commissioner, in an address at the inauguration of the Classification and Valuation complex in October last year, proclaimed that CEPS was now ready to take over all inspection functions.
A study commissioned by the Ministry of Trade and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) came to the conclusion that CEPS should be fully in charge of destination works.
The report recommended that the contracts of the three DICs – BIVAC, Inspection and Control Services and Ghana Link Network — should not be renewed, while that of GSL should also not be renewed when it expired in 2010.
Already, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was not in favour of the operations of the DICs.
The benefits for the nation and other stakeholders in the event of CEPS taking over all core functions are many. In terms of revenue mobilisation and maximisation, the state will eliminate leakage in government revenue or at least reduce it drastically. The CEPS system will also reduce human intervention and thereby close the gaps for possible corruption.
There are records indicating that on several occasions valuation figures provided by the DICs fell below CEPS’ own figures when they came up for further verification. Most important, the transaction being executed online will be easily available and accessible to importers.
The question now is, why the delay in handing over this important business to CEPS, after importers, freight forwarders and other stakeholders had expressed their support for a take-over of the destination inspection by CEPS?
Also questionable is the declaration in January 2009 by the same CEPS Commissioner that his organisation, about which he boasted in October 2008 that it was ready to handle its core duties, could suddenly find itself no longer capable of executing those same functions.
Has CEPS suddenly lost its professional staff who were positioned to take over destination inspection duties in January this year? What about the Classification and Valuation edifice the CEPS Commissioner inaugurated in October 2008? Has it lost its equipment and furnishings so soon to render it useless?
Another strange thing which needs explanation is how an eight-year agreement was signed on December 28, 2008 which was a Sunday (non-working day) with a new company, Ghana Customs Inspection Limited, which is apparently an offshoot of Ghana Link Network, to do destination inspection work in the country.
How can another company be given such a long-term contract when CEPS was a few days away from taking over those duties? Who the owners of that company are and the motives behind such a contract are questions begging for answers.
Can CEPS be working against itself by declaring its readiness to take over destination inspection duties in one breath, while at the same time sponsoring another company to remove the meat from its mouth?
The country must not lose the opportunity to maximise its revenue collection on import duties, neither should it isolate itself from international norms. That is why whatever the stumbling blocks are on the path of CEPS, they should be removed immediately so that the service could fully assume its classification and valuation functions in the country without delay.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
These DICs were engaged to do price qualification and classification of goods on behalf of the government, build price database for CEPS and subsequently transfer the know-how to CEPS at the end of their contract terms so that CEPS could take over those responsibilities.
As payment for their services, these DICs receive one per cent commission on all transactions made on behalf of the government.
The idea of the DICs became relevant apparently under the assumption that CEPS was deficient in the technological know-how and human capacity to effectively and efficiently perform those functions ceded to the DICs.
To prepare for the ultimate taking over of the job specifications of the DICs, CEPS took certain steps, including attachment of its staff to these DICs for on-the-job training, while organising overseas training programmes for core staff in the relevant fields.
CEPS also invested in space and equipment by inaugurating a fully equipped and furnished Classification and Valuation Unit at Ridge in Accra in anticipation of fully taking over all core destination inspection functions by January 2009.
This is because apart from the GSL, whose original 10-year contract was due to end in 2010, all the other DICs were to end their operations by December 2008. Even though a one-year extension contract was given to them, the idea was to prepare the DICs for a gradual withdrawal, while CEPS consolidates its control over destination inspection.
Mr Emmanuel Doku, the CEPS Commissioner, in an address at the inauguration of the Classification and Valuation complex in October last year, proclaimed that CEPS was now ready to take over all inspection functions.
A study commissioned by the Ministry of Trade and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) came to the conclusion that CEPS should be fully in charge of destination works.
The report recommended that the contracts of the three DICs – BIVAC, Inspection and Control Services and Ghana Link Network — should not be renewed, while that of GSL should also not be renewed when it expired in 2010.
Already, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was not in favour of the operations of the DICs.
The benefits for the nation and other stakeholders in the event of CEPS taking over all core functions are many. In terms of revenue mobilisation and maximisation, the state will eliminate leakage in government revenue or at least reduce it drastically. The CEPS system will also reduce human intervention and thereby close the gaps for possible corruption.
There are records indicating that on several occasions valuation figures provided by the DICs fell below CEPS’ own figures when they came up for further verification. Most important, the transaction being executed online will be easily available and accessible to importers.
The question now is, why the delay in handing over this important business to CEPS, after importers, freight forwarders and other stakeholders had expressed their support for a take-over of the destination inspection by CEPS?
Also questionable is the declaration in January 2009 by the same CEPS Commissioner that his organisation, about which he boasted in October 2008 that it was ready to handle its core duties, could suddenly find itself no longer capable of executing those same functions.
Has CEPS suddenly lost its professional staff who were positioned to take over destination inspection duties in January this year? What about the Classification and Valuation edifice the CEPS Commissioner inaugurated in October 2008? Has it lost its equipment and furnishings so soon to render it useless?
Another strange thing which needs explanation is how an eight-year agreement was signed on December 28, 2008 which was a Sunday (non-working day) with a new company, Ghana Customs Inspection Limited, which is apparently an offshoot of Ghana Link Network, to do destination inspection work in the country.
How can another company be given such a long-term contract when CEPS was a few days away from taking over those duties? Who the owners of that company are and the motives behind such a contract are questions begging for answers.
Can CEPS be working against itself by declaring its readiness to take over destination inspection duties in one breath, while at the same time sponsoring another company to remove the meat from its mouth?
The country must not lose the opportunity to maximise its revenue collection on import duties, neither should it isolate itself from international norms. That is why whatever the stumbling blocks are on the path of CEPS, they should be removed immediately so that the service could fully assume its classification and valuation functions in the country without delay.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
The Chameleons are here
By Kofi Akordor
On Thursday, February 19, 2009, the President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, delivered his maiden State of Nation address to Parliament as prescribed by the 1992 Republican Constitution. In simple terms, in the State of the Nation address, the President is to render account to Ghanaians on the true state of Ghana, outlining among other things, the state of the economy, social and industrial infrastructure, security and national stability and to tell the citizens how he is going to remedy the weaknesses identified and sustain and improve upon the gains made.
Even though it is reasonable to expect that some people may have political interest in the State of the Nation address, its importance and significance go beyond partisan considerations. Our interest as a nation is as to whether the address has identified our problems or not and as to whether the President has outlined strategies and programmes to address our concern.
It is, therefore, necessary that as much as possible, discussions on the State of the Nation address are handled by serious-minded persons in a fair and objective manner devoid of any party coloration.
Multiparty democracy demands that political parties take a critical look at the programmes and policies of their opponents and hammer on their weak points to advantage. That is good for the political game but not necessarily for the sake of it. Where national interest is at stake, an impartial and fair discussion on matters will serve a more useful purpose than mere politicking.
It is our life, our fate and our future that are at stake and, therefore, the address needs to be subjected to a critical analysis so that the President and his advisors, if they value public opinion, fair comment and objective criticism, will draw useful lessons from the debate and enrich the national agenda for development
That is why any attempt to turn the discussion into another political funfair of condemnations and praise singing should not be countenanced. On Friday, February 20, 2009, panellists were just warming themselves up for a discussion programme on the State of the Nation address on Ghana Television (GTV), a Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) television network’s Breakfast Show, when there was an abrupt stoppage.
Many thought the programme might have been a victim of the country’s erratic power supply system, more so when the host told viewers that the programme had suffered a technical hitch. Later there were rumours that the long arms of faceless but powerful figures in political authority were interfering with the programme. Then came the information that the programme was stopped in that abrupt manner on the orders of Mr William Ampem Darko, the Director-General of the GBC.
Mr Ampem Darko confirmed in his own words that he caused the abrupt end of the programme with the explanation that the panel was skewed in favour of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which had two panellists as against the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) one panellist. In the first place, why should a discussion on the President’s State of the Nation address on a national network be a matter between the NPP and the NDC?
What type of balance was the Director-General of GBC aiming at that compelled him to disrupt a national programme that was already in motion? The position of Mr Dan Botwe, Member of Parliament (MP) for Okere, that Mr Ampem Darko’s action was only to court the affection of the NDC cannot be brushed aside. Since when did it dawn on him that there is something called balance, when managing a national asset like GBC? If the Director-General had conducted himself professionally when it mattered most, he would not have found himself in this tight situation, where he is compelled to behave like an overzealous convert, in trying to interpret the rule of fairness, equity and objectivity.
Mr Ampem Darko, by that action, might have been trying to couch a new image for himself as someone who knows the rules and wants to play by them. Unfortunately, he has ended up exposing that characteristic common with most Ghanaians, who at the least opportunity change their tunes. He has also succeeded in creating a bad image for the government, since many Ghanaians were interpreting that Friday’s interruption as an attempt by the new government to overpower dissent or opposing views by emasculating the media, especially those that are state-owned.
Those who work in the media will testify about the pressures that practitioners have to overcome. This even becomes more serious for those who work in the state-owned media, where those in political power want to have their way. The dilemma of Mr Ampem Darko, and many others, can, therefore, be well understood.
Notwithstanding that, it is still possible for those who want to exhibit true professional standards to do so, if even in a limited way. Very often, some media practitioners are just in a hurry to please people in authority when even no pressure has been exerted on them. They are just happy playing the sycophantic game and satisfied with the falling crumbs that go with them without any regard for honour and integrity. Journalists are supposed to be fair and objective in their professional practice and I think if they should take sides, they should be on the side of the poor, oppressed and marginalised and not those who wield enormous state power, which they use to inflict more hardships on the people.
A combination of sycophancy and opportunism on the part of the media only destroys the nation and brings bad image and damnation to the governments we claim to be sheltering.
This is a new government and Mr Ampem Darko’s action was going to set it on a collision course with the public and dent its image even before it sets its feet down to do serious business.
During the election, we saw how people denounced their parties and celebrated their switch of allegiances. Some had dreams and some visions. Today, they will be wondering why they were driven by survival instincts to make fools out of themselves.
With a new government in place, sooner than later, we should expect more of the type of Mr Ampem Darko, who, like a chameleon, will begin to change colours to match the new environment. Those, who just yesterday, saw Professor Mills too sick to govern this country, will soon start pouring praises on him. Survive, we must, but it pays to operate within standards and with principles. At least those who are entrusted with state institutions should be bold enough to operate within the rules and even suffer the consequences so that they do not find themselves in a situation where their immediate past masters will begin to ridicule them in public for selling their conscience to them, when they should not have done so, while on the other hand, the new masters doubt their loyalty.
It is generally known that our politics is full of vindictiveness. But good and fair-minded people cannot fail to spot out those who have held their offices professionally and kept level heads in extreme conditions. Such persons should not fear any change in government.
Mr Ampem Darko will surely suffer scorn and disdain from his NPP colleagues and he should not think that his newly cultivated acrobatic stunts will endear him to those in the NDC either. He should have exhibited the qualities of independence, fairness and objectivity towards the parties when they were all in the trench fighting for the votes of Ghanaians. The NPP for all you know might not have given any instructions to the Director-General to be biased against any party during Election 2008. But as had been proved over last weekend’s incident, Mr Ampem Darko might have taken certain decisions to please the government of the day and once those decisions were pleasant to the government, the men and women in authority will remain silent. But in doing that, his professional integrity will be on the line. That is why today, he finds himself in this quagmire. But as it is now, both ways he is a loser.
On Thursday, February 19, 2009, the President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, delivered his maiden State of Nation address to Parliament as prescribed by the 1992 Republican Constitution. In simple terms, in the State of the Nation address, the President is to render account to Ghanaians on the true state of Ghana, outlining among other things, the state of the economy, social and industrial infrastructure, security and national stability and to tell the citizens how he is going to remedy the weaknesses identified and sustain and improve upon the gains made.
Even though it is reasonable to expect that some people may have political interest in the State of the Nation address, its importance and significance go beyond partisan considerations. Our interest as a nation is as to whether the address has identified our problems or not and as to whether the President has outlined strategies and programmes to address our concern.
It is, therefore, necessary that as much as possible, discussions on the State of the Nation address are handled by serious-minded persons in a fair and objective manner devoid of any party coloration.
Multiparty democracy demands that political parties take a critical look at the programmes and policies of their opponents and hammer on their weak points to advantage. That is good for the political game but not necessarily for the sake of it. Where national interest is at stake, an impartial and fair discussion on matters will serve a more useful purpose than mere politicking.
It is our life, our fate and our future that are at stake and, therefore, the address needs to be subjected to a critical analysis so that the President and his advisors, if they value public opinion, fair comment and objective criticism, will draw useful lessons from the debate and enrich the national agenda for development
That is why any attempt to turn the discussion into another political funfair of condemnations and praise singing should not be countenanced. On Friday, February 20, 2009, panellists were just warming themselves up for a discussion programme on the State of the Nation address on Ghana Television (GTV), a Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) television network’s Breakfast Show, when there was an abrupt stoppage.
Many thought the programme might have been a victim of the country’s erratic power supply system, more so when the host told viewers that the programme had suffered a technical hitch. Later there were rumours that the long arms of faceless but powerful figures in political authority were interfering with the programme. Then came the information that the programme was stopped in that abrupt manner on the orders of Mr William Ampem Darko, the Director-General of the GBC.
Mr Ampem Darko confirmed in his own words that he caused the abrupt end of the programme with the explanation that the panel was skewed in favour of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which had two panellists as against the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) one panellist. In the first place, why should a discussion on the President’s State of the Nation address on a national network be a matter between the NPP and the NDC?
What type of balance was the Director-General of GBC aiming at that compelled him to disrupt a national programme that was already in motion? The position of Mr Dan Botwe, Member of Parliament (MP) for Okere, that Mr Ampem Darko’s action was only to court the affection of the NDC cannot be brushed aside. Since when did it dawn on him that there is something called balance, when managing a national asset like GBC? If the Director-General had conducted himself professionally when it mattered most, he would not have found himself in this tight situation, where he is compelled to behave like an overzealous convert, in trying to interpret the rule of fairness, equity and objectivity.
Mr Ampem Darko, by that action, might have been trying to couch a new image for himself as someone who knows the rules and wants to play by them. Unfortunately, he has ended up exposing that characteristic common with most Ghanaians, who at the least opportunity change their tunes. He has also succeeded in creating a bad image for the government, since many Ghanaians were interpreting that Friday’s interruption as an attempt by the new government to overpower dissent or opposing views by emasculating the media, especially those that are state-owned.
Those who work in the media will testify about the pressures that practitioners have to overcome. This even becomes more serious for those who work in the state-owned media, where those in political power want to have their way. The dilemma of Mr Ampem Darko, and many others, can, therefore, be well understood.
Notwithstanding that, it is still possible for those who want to exhibit true professional standards to do so, if even in a limited way. Very often, some media practitioners are just in a hurry to please people in authority when even no pressure has been exerted on them. They are just happy playing the sycophantic game and satisfied with the falling crumbs that go with them without any regard for honour and integrity. Journalists are supposed to be fair and objective in their professional practice and I think if they should take sides, they should be on the side of the poor, oppressed and marginalised and not those who wield enormous state power, which they use to inflict more hardships on the people.
A combination of sycophancy and opportunism on the part of the media only destroys the nation and brings bad image and damnation to the governments we claim to be sheltering.
This is a new government and Mr Ampem Darko’s action was going to set it on a collision course with the public and dent its image even before it sets its feet down to do serious business.
During the election, we saw how people denounced their parties and celebrated their switch of allegiances. Some had dreams and some visions. Today, they will be wondering why they were driven by survival instincts to make fools out of themselves.
With a new government in place, sooner than later, we should expect more of the type of Mr Ampem Darko, who, like a chameleon, will begin to change colours to match the new environment. Those, who just yesterday, saw Professor Mills too sick to govern this country, will soon start pouring praises on him. Survive, we must, but it pays to operate within standards and with principles. At least those who are entrusted with state institutions should be bold enough to operate within the rules and even suffer the consequences so that they do not find themselves in a situation where their immediate past masters will begin to ridicule them in public for selling their conscience to them, when they should not have done so, while on the other hand, the new masters doubt their loyalty.
It is generally known that our politics is full of vindictiveness. But good and fair-minded people cannot fail to spot out those who have held their offices professionally and kept level heads in extreme conditions. Such persons should not fear any change in government.
Mr Ampem Darko will surely suffer scorn and disdain from his NPP colleagues and he should not think that his newly cultivated acrobatic stunts will endear him to those in the NDC either. He should have exhibited the qualities of independence, fairness and objectivity towards the parties when they were all in the trench fighting for the votes of Ghanaians. The NPP for all you know might not have given any instructions to the Director-General to be biased against any party during Election 2008. But as had been proved over last weekend’s incident, Mr Ampem Darko might have taken certain decisions to please the government of the day and once those decisions were pleasant to the government, the men and women in authority will remain silent. But in doing that, his professional integrity will be on the line. That is why today, he finds himself in this quagmire. But as it is now, both ways he is a loser.
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