Tamale (Northern Region), 28th June 99 -

Government institutions and business establishments have been advised to engage the services of statisticians to ensure proper planning, monitoring and evaluation of their activities.

This will facilitate adequate inventory and quality control as well as effective budgeting, auditing and research to assist in management decision processes.

Mr G.S. Tia, Head of the Department of Statistics, Mathematics and Science of Tamale Polytechnic, made the call at the inauguration of the school's branch of the Ghana Association of Statistics Students in Tamale on Friday.

He said development had reached a state where business establishments and government could not do without statistics.

"Unfortunately, both the public and the private sectors continue to ignore the expertise of the statistician and this has led to widespread discrimination on the job market."

Mr Tia said what goes into the training of the statistician goes far beyond the collection, representation, analysis and interpretation of data into the social, economic, health and business fields.

He, therefore, called on district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies, banks, hospitals and other organisations not only to establish statistics departments but accept students on industrial attachments to give them a foretaste of their contributions to society.

Mr Charles Tandoh, Vice-Principal of the Polytechnic, said even though data are used frequently to support certain information, many people misuse them to their own advantage.

He, therefore, called on the new association to be alert and act as watchdogs so that people would not mislead society and make a mockery of the their noble profession.

GRi?/