The Institute of Public Relations (IPR) has emphasized the need to restore the Ghanaian values system, especially in the area of corporate governance.

IPR believes the recent banking sector crisis, which culminated in the collapse of seven banks, is largely as a result of the neglect to incorporate the Ghanaian values systems into corporate governance.

Speaking at the launch of the 2018 PR week celebrations in Accra, on Monday, September 17, President of the Institute, Ms. Elaine Sam, said things would have been different if due diligence was done in the banking sector.

“The recent issues within the financial sector of our country points to this basic fact. The loss of our value system is to blame for poor corporate governance,” she observed.

She said as simplistic as it may sound, if due diligence was done and advise was adhered to, chances are we would not be in the situation we find ourselves.

Ms. Elaine urged all members to orient their children in the spirit of patriotism and responsibility.

“Where are we today? We have lost all of these and the impact is permeating into the fabric of society negatively…We need to go back to the basics ensuring our children attain a high sense of patriotism and responsibility”, she said.

According to her, the IPR’s assessment of the Ghanaian environment prior to the 2016 elections “indicated that the nation Ghana have lost our values”, hence the theme “deriving values from value – a test for corporate governance” as a guide for IPR in the year 2018.

She used the opportunity to hint on the hold the Ghana National Public Relations and Communications excellence awards scheduled to come off in November and urged all members to partake in it.



Below is her full speech:

ADDRESS BY MS. ELAINE SAM, PRESIDENT OF THE INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS GHANA, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE 2018 PR WEEK CELEBRATIONS, ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 AT THE GHANA INTERNATIONAL PRESS CENTRE, ACCRA.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the media and thank you for being here today for this press launch.

I am excited today because PR and the media are two sides of the same coin and so you the media and we the PR practitioners are partners.

The theme that is guiding IPR for the 2018 year is “deriving values from value – a test for corporate governance”. From our assessment in 2017, many of the issues that came up even prior to that during the 2016 elections and matters after indicate that the nation Ghana have lost our values. We grew up in a country where respect for elders, disposal of waste, respect for national emblems were done with dignity. The same cannot be said today. We listen to the national anthem play without any recognition at all. Back in the day, it was with a lot of pride when citizens stood at attention at the sound of the national anthem. That was the days when we had sanitary inspectors which we popularly called “tankase” to ensure there was proper disposal of waste with sanitation courts to impose fines of households that did not follow these practices.

Where are we today? We have lost all of these and the impact is permeating into the fabric of society negatively.

The theme we have chosen is to begin again the conversations on restoring the value system of the Ghanaian. We need to go back to the basics ensuring our children attain a high sense of patriotism and responsibility.

The recent issues within the financial sector of our country points to this basic fact. The loss of our value system is to blame for poor corporate governance. As simplistic as it may sound, did we need to just appoint anyone as elders for a community? Did we not do due diligence even before our children entered into marriage? Did we not show respect to the elders and listen to advice from them? So if we adhered to these tendencies, chances are we would not be in the situation we find ourselves.

To throw more light on this theme, Hon. Kojo Yankah, who was a former director of the Ghana Institute of Journalism where many of you may have trained, a former member of parliament, a former minister of information and regional minister. He is also the founder of the African University college of Communications will do an exposition of the theme and draw our attention to the guiding principles on values. He would also touch on the subject of corporate governance which has become topical in recent times. The regulatory environment would also be under the microscope.

Then in October, for 17th to 19th, all PR practitioners would gather in Winneba for the national PR conference and Annual General Meeting where we shall take stock. Seasoned practitioners like Joseph Emmanuel Allotey-Pappoe, a fellow of IPR and past president of the Africa Public Relations Associations (APRA), HE Dr. Margaret Amoakohene, member of the council of state amongst other senior practitioners would lead various PR conversations aimed at expanding the body of knowledge and sharing. The AGM would afford us the opportunity to take stock of our activities and also forecast into the next year where we shall be holding elections to elect a new set of leaders for our noble institution.

Winneba, is the second city to play host to the AMG after a very successful event in Kumasi last year. Since we left Kumasi, we have had some training programme and interventions there. I am happy to say we are exploring options to be more permanent secretariat to support practitioners in the Northern Sector of the country.

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, God willing in November, we shall hold the Ghana National Public Relations and Communications excellence awards here in Accra. The call for entries have already gone out and I would like to entreat all businesses, organizations as well as practitioners to actively participate by submitting their entries for consideration.

We have reviewed the award categories and would continue to do so with the view of making it better. Some members have expressed some concerns on the awards through the feedback sessions. Let me assure them that the committee would evaluate these concerns during the review process.

The government has taken on many policies and we congratulate the government for implementing on many policies towards national development. However from the PR point of view, there remains a lot of room for improvement. We in IPR would like to see a more hands on approach towards getting the general public involved especially towards greening our environment and making our cities clean.

Similarly, it applies to some corporate bodies as well. Many people do not take the communications function seriously and leading to the failure of many great interventions. Let me ask government and all businesses and corporate entities to invest seriously into communications and training of the communication personnel to ensure we can derive the maximum of benefits from our practitioners.

I wish to conclude by calling on our partners the media to actively join the national conversation on restoring our values. We on our part would talk and provide the resources needed to ensure we can go back to the basic. It is important to our national development.

I thank you for coming and for your attention