Engage private sector in quality control - Consultant

Accra, March 4, 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.