Tuesday 28 June 2011

LETTER TO A COLUMNIST!!!

Dear Sir,

I have read your column piece on AVRL and the GWCL saga. Useful commentary on a topical public policy matter I must say but I am worried by some of the claims you make. You assert that " human resource is the least" of the problems GWCL faced because it has some of the best engineers. But the question we must ask without sullying the image of the engineers there is how come GWSL needed AVRL in the first place? You defense is that politics is to blame. If that is so how then do you blame AVRL for all the woes of GWCL? 

I find your claim that Ghana has no problem with human resource quite puzzling. Do we even have data on the professionals we have in various professions? How many Ph.Ds does Ghana have and medical doctors and computers scientists and mathematicians etc? The minister of employment and social welfare just recently bemoaned the absence of labour statistics; that should tell you something about the gaps in this seductive claim that all is well with Ghana's human resource base. I mean look at our roads and other infrastructure. They tell a story of the challenges we face with manpower.I think that the excoriation of AVRL(which I humbly think your piece reflects) has taken a certain nationalistic tone bordering on the jingoistic. That will not serve Ghana well. Again you mention "wheel barrow and shovels" and the management contract that Ghana entered into with AVRL; does management involve such tools? Please tell me. Does President Atta Mills need such tools to run Ghana?

The great Nkrumah did not shy away from using foreign minds as and when necessary. His economic policy advisers for example included Europeans(see Tony Killick's latest work on Ghana). The Chinese have used foreign expertise as and when necessary( the Shanghai skyline for example has the stamp of Western architects; and note that the West has been China's arch enemy historically). Again in the run up to the Beijing Olympics Steven Spielberg was hired to advise on the choreography for the opening ceremony. Indeed a lily white man Shapiro is one of the core members of the Chinese Communist Party. Indeed to be able to tap into expertise wherever it comes from intelligently shows confidence in oneself instead of a cringing capitulation and loss of national honour as you suggest.

I think that sobriety is needed to interrogate this AVRL matter. I recently used the AVRL(after they left; or their "demise" -to borrow your words)  sms code 1700 to report a fault: I drew a blank. I called the Operations Room of the GWCL; the reaction was hostile. I was simply calling to report a burst pipe in my area and was led on a merry go round using my units to call area managers. The AVRL customer system worked; at least in my experience. AVRL might not have met all its targets; the key question is why and the answer does lie in the retort that the problems arose because non-Ghanaians were involved. Nationalism is important and I support you on that; but when it enforces blindness to our weaknesses that becomes debilitating hubris.

Fokofi please come again o this one.

Best wishes
lloyd 

Monday 6 June 2011

NO BRAINER: IF YOU ALLEGE CORRUPTION PROVIDE PROOF!!!!

I have been pondering this maxim which seems to have taken root in our polity in contemporary times. Monitoring the news today it has been repeated ad nauseam that if Yaw, Ayisi or Rawlings alleges corruption they are talking nonsense unless they can offer proof. I mean the corrupt first and foremost will hide their booty and cover their tracks with all the subterfuge they can muster. If ordinary folks make the case about corruption it is in my view the duty of the state machinery to set the processes in motion to investigate. Kwame becomes a minister and then over night has four mansions in Accra and 6 four wheel drives sitting in his compound; people see this transformation and ask questions; should they offer proof before they are taken serious?

 In the first place a serious government intent on dealing with theft of public resources will ensure that government appointees do not live above their means and will take allegations of corruption serious enough to do their own checks( do an Anas if need be). It is lazy politicos who see power as a sure route to  ill gotten wealth who when confronted with corruption will respond as though we are in a court of law and say " where is your proof?": for me that is complete hogwash!!!! Any serious government will subject its ministers and appointees  to almost hellish standards of public morality; that is the sure route to the TRANSFORMATION we seek!!!!

Sunday 5 June 2011

Stars and a pitch!!!

Laryea Kingson (in black pants) and Stephen Appiah(in white trunks) leave the pitch.
I recently joined a crowd that had gathered to watch an informal training session of some of Ghana's very recent former soccer stars. A grass-less, red earth, almost obscure field hosted legs that had made Ghana so proud on countless occasions and graced some of the leading leagues on the globe. For me it was a moment to extend a very personal thanks to Stephen Appiah the only and first captain to have led the Black Stars to the world cup. Appiah's selfless devotion to country marks him out. I shook his hand; small talk followed; I could feel the steely resolve and charisma with which he led Ghanaian colours on countless battles on the football pitch. He still looks great; in evidence was that great physical presence: a cross between a rhino and an ox. Any smart government must give him the Order of the Star of the Volta. He more than deserves it.  On his right sat Laryea Kingson. In Ga I told him some of us were waiting for the moment he would play for the Black Stars at the world cup; it is now just a dream; maybe. Awudu Issaka(him of the Starlets fame) was on the pitch too and Matthew Amoah.  As I watched them tango with the red earth I wondered why Accra has no fields(grassed; organized; even humane) in a nation completely gobsmacked by this game?