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Engage private sector in quality control - Consultant
Accra, March 4, Ghanadot/GNA – Mr. Nimo
Ahinkorah, International Consultant for Commonwealth
Secretariat, London, on Tuesday advocated private sector
involvement in standards and conformity assessment to enable
Ghanaian products to gain acceptance on the international
market.
He said the practice whereby a body such as the Ghana
Standards Board had been assigned both the regulatory and
enforcement roles had led to a conflict of interest, thus
hampering initiatives to attain the desired industrial
growth.
Mr Ahinkorah made the call at a stakeholders workshop in
Accra to review the National Standardizations, Quality
Assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SQAM) Strategic Plan
to enable the country to meet international requirements on
quality control.
The workshop was a follow-up to a contract by the Ministry
of Trade, Industry, President's Special Initiative and
Private Sector Development to the Ghana Institute of
Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) Consultancy
Services to seek inputs on current status of Ghana's SQAM
and the way forward.
Mr Ahinkorah said further research had shown that countries,
which had delegated the various roles of quality control
such as inspection, testing, calibration and accreditation
were performing better as compared to those with one body
coordinating all activities.
He said institutions such as the Universities, Centre for
Scientific and Industrial Research and private research
institutions could instead be given the opportunity to join
in quality control to ensure efficiency and competitiveness.
According to the Consultant, the open offer would lessen the
workload on the statutory bodies which would then take up
the monitoring and evaluation roles to ensure that the
private institutions worked in accordance with policy
documents.
Mr Ahinkorah said adopting the initiative would open avenues
for investments, jobs creation, technological development,
industrial efficiency and competitiveness.
Mr Joe Baidoe-Ansah, the sector Minister, in a speech read
on his behalf, said the review of the document had become
necessary because Ghana's SQAM infrastructure was incomplete
and unresponsive to the needs of the economy.
He said the new SQAM infrastructure was therefore aimed at
positioning the country to meet relevant national and
international obligations that pertained to trade, public
health, safety, environment, agriculture and technology
transfer.
The Minister endorsed the proposal for private sector
participation and expressed the hope that the initiative
would not jeopardize the necessary regulatory policy space
that government needed, especially on health and security
concerns.
He hinted that a National Forum would soon be held to
validate the proposed SQAM infrastructure and implementation
plan.
GNA
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