-Regulatory Agencies Cannot Escape Blame



By Asante Gyimah



The importation of fake and substandard products onto the Ghanaian market is not a new phenomenon. This inhuman, wicked, selfish, undercover practice has been with humanity perhaps since creation. However, in Ghana in recent times, the practice has assumed alarming and dangerous proportions or dimensions in its form complexity and intensity. It has debilitating effects on the individual and on the nation. These fake and substandard imported goods are sold to the unsuspecting Ghanaian consumer. My heart bleeds for consumers for they innocently get to the markets with the intention of procuring consumables to satisfy one or another critical need. These consumers end up as losers as what they buy are usually of less quality and value and even dangerous for consumption. These goods are substantially imports that originate from outside Ghana and find their way, without any serious trade restrictions, onto the local markets. Clearly some state agencies cannot escape blame for this imminent catastrophe that these agencies have either wittingly or unwittingly contributed to.



Discerning Ghanaians should always ask our preventive state agencies critical questions about what is being done to protect, secure our boarders and to make it impossible for any infiltration. Similar critical questions must be asked of the Ghana standards Board an organization that is expected to put in place the necessary mechanisms to track fake and substandard goods that reach the market through our porous entry points.

The questions, I hear most Ghanaians asking are whether;

i. The Ghana standards Board has adequate systems in place;

ii. The Ghana standards Board has competent, upright and diligent men and women who put the interests of the consumer above their personal perhaps selfish idiosyncrasies.

The newspapers are daily inundated by reports on fake and substandard goods that continue to flood our markets to the brim. Since January this year 2010, there has been hardly a week in which some report on fake and substandard imported goods is not made in a newspaper. Some few examples of reported cases on the importation of such products should suffice here, even though this article is not assuming that the media is able to report on all cases of fake and substandard imported goods. Indeed, what the media (both print and electronic) report on is only the tip of the iceberg

The reports provide an inkling into the great devastation that is quietly and imperceptibly taking place due principally to the recklessness and indifference of our political leaders, policy makers, state agencies mandated to ensure that the Ghanaian consumer is protected from the nefarious and clandestine activities of charlatans who come in the shape of importers, but whose supreme interest is to maximize their profits. The clandestine activities are the method adopted by some Ghanaians who use the importation of goods as a cover – up for a more dangerous business they engage in.

Policy makers must have the political will to prevent wholesale importation of all manner of products onto our markets in the name of so – called trade liberalization.

In view of recent happenings with fires, I will dwell on 2 stories namely “ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS BLAME FIRES ON POOR MATERIALS” (Daily Graphic – March 5, 2010 back page); “CID CHASES FAKE ELECTRICAL CABLE DEALERS” – April 19/20, 2010 page 3 and its “EDITORIAL” On page 7 and (THE ENQUIRER)“TWO ARRESTED OVER SUBSTANDARD CABLES” (Ghanaian Times – April 7, 2010 back page) are revealing and are likely to push the readers to reflect on the future that is being bequeathed to our children and later generation.

Dear Reader, the 3 articles not only pricked my conscience and served as eye opener to me but also led me to conclude that the current generation is gradually, recklessly but surely trading away the future of the generation unborn. It is a pity that as a nation we seem to remain in our slumber and do not appreciate the dire consequences of our actions or inactions.

The Ghanaian Times and The Enquirer reports on the fake Electrical Cables really scared me and that is why I wish to dwell on it a little bit more. The report was about some two businessmen who callously rubbed off the original labels on the fake imported cable and candidly replaced them with fake labels of Nexans Kabelmetal – a renowned electrical cable manufacturing company (based in Ghana for over forty years), and aimed to nicodemonusly put them onto the market but, for the vigilance of the police they would have sold it to the public. Nexans Kabelmetal, an electrical company that has, through hard work, ingenuity, product and market research, investment in human resource and other innovations ensured the production of quality electrical goods.

The repercussions of the duties of these saboteurs is not evident at the level of the organization whose products are counterfeited but even more far – reaching is the number of precious Ghanaian lives lost and properties.

1. Asafo Market (here fire outbreaks are now yearly rituals!)

2. Agbogloshie Market – almost six monthly rituals

3. Makola Market – perhaps bi – annual ritual

4. Tema and Ashiaman Markets

5. Takoradi Market

6. Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education

7. Residence of the Former President Rawlings

8. Korle – Bu Teaching Hospital

9. National Lotteries Head Office

This article is not suggesting that all the fires mentioned here can be attributed to fake and substandard imported electrical cables. Having said so, I am quick to assert that most of them resulted directly from faulty fake and substandard cables.

What is true is that these importers have accomplices or partners in crime who are electricians. Most of these electrical contractors are contracted by unsuspecting prospective house owners to wire their homes. Reports indicate that some times the quality cables are exchanged with these substandard ones at construction sites. The danger is that once these cables get buried in walls or underground, it is not possible to detect their faulty or substandard quality. Estate and property developers must be vigilant.

The President’s Recent Unannounced Visits

The recent unannounced visits to CEPS, the internal Revenue Service, the Tema Harbour by the President, His Excellency Atta Mills are commendable. This is especially so as the President has so far used the platform to express his misgivings about certain practices that go on at the institutions visited. But man y have argued that it would take something more drastic than mere presidential visits and expression of disgust to remove the canker of corruption that has become so engulfed in our public institutions to the extent that fake electrical cables and other substandard imported goods easily fin their way to our markets. The Problem requires a sustained, collective and coordinated national effort spearheaded by the President and his Government and the alertness of the Ghanaian consumer. Yes, consumers also have a role to play. Remember the adage: “Consumer, beware”.

In other words, consumers must be wary of what they are purchasing as they “are those ultimately affected when they don’t pay particular attention to guiding of the product they are patronizing

Suggestions

In the light of the foregoing, I dare say that government should take another look at all enabling legislations on the GSB and other agencies and to empower them to confiscate and publicly destroy seized items within say 48 hours. Situations in which confiscated items are kept for days or even months because investigations continue to drag on should cease as the slow bureaucratic processes breed endemic corruption. We have instances where seized items have vanished into thin air in warehouses or have metamorphosed into some other strange items. It is in the light of the above that I am applauding the recent directive by the Ministry of Trade and Industry for the quick destruction of counterfeited textiles smuggled into the country and the setting up of a powerful task force involving all stakeholders including the police to ensure effective implementation of the directive. (See Daily Graphic, April 8, 2010 front page). The big question here is: would the task force be given strong teeth to bite or be just mere toothless bulldogs that could bark all day but cannot bite?

Still on legislation, is it not possible for government to enact laws that will compel government houses and government sponsored projects to exclusively use locally produced electrical cables as it has been proven over time that they are of high quality?

Build Strong Regulatory Institution, not strong Men

The writer of this article would agree with the suggestion that what we need in Ghana are strong institutions that are able to put into operations full – proof systems. We do not need strong men (macho men) to take up positions in CEPS, the Ghana standards Board and such other organizations. Strong institutions characterized by well – thought systems are the only enduring panacea to heal such canker in the country.

Given that most Ghanaians are ignorant about the thriving market in fake and substandard electrical products, this piece seeks to advise all the electrical cables manufacturing companies based in the country to pool resources to educate the public on their products. It is commonly said that it is only quality products that are faked. It stands to reason therefore that the companies in genuine cable manufacturing must appreciate that their products are known to be of high standards, and must do everything to protect the integrity of these products and also find a way to support the state protective agencies. They can use floats, leaflets, sketches on TV and Radio, community dramas and durbars and documentaries. This way they would be playing their social responsibly role, safe guiding their own business interests and also saving Ghanaian customer from the throes of fake and substandard products that are so hazardous when they come in the form of electric cables and other such products.

It should be possible for the government to rely heavily on locally based electrical cable manufacturing companies for its needs. Government could sometimes facilitate a process that enables them to do limited importation of cables if their capacities cannot measure up to orders on hand at a given period.

Government can also give limited accreditation to some companies to import electrical cables into the country so that their source could be traced when the need arise.

Government houses and other estate developers should do routine checks of electrical cables to ascertain their genuineness or otherwise so that corrective measures are taken if need be to avert disaster.

Conclusion

All said I hope that government leaders, the clergy, civil society and citizens will all join hands in a national crusade to completely wipe out this practice in the general interest of the Ghanaian consumer.