Akosombo (Eastern Region) 19 March '99

The Ghana News Agency (GNA) and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) are to be prepared for commercialisation within the next three years under the public sector reform agenda. The on-going workshop on the Re-invention of Government selected these two entities from a list of nine because they appeared to have the potential for growth. Sixty delegates from the executive arm of government, the judiciary, legislature, Trade Union Congress (TUC), the community and public, are reviewing governments proposals of down-sizing the public sector to achieve efficiency. The three-day workshop, which ends tomorrow, Friday, March 19, is being organised by the National Institutional Renewal Programme (NIRP) and jointly sponsored by the government of Ghana and the World Bank. The new status to be accorded the GNA and GBC, which was hotly debated, means they will be taken off government's pay roll after complete managerial, financial and technical review and strengthening. Delegates, however, cautioned that government should adequately prepare the media houses before completely commercialising them. They said national security and access to information should be some of the guiding principles at the preparatory stage. Government funds 180 agencies but since there is no effective reform process that can take all of them at a go, only 30 are being monitored under a three-year pilot programme initiated by the NIRP to ascertain their viability or otherwise.