Baah-Wiredu Visits Graphic (page 31)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah
THE Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, yesterday led a team of top officials from revenue agencies to the offices of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) to have an insight into some of the strategies being used by the company to increase productivity.
High on the agenda was the computerised system being used by the editorial department to record output of reporters on daily basis for easy assessment.
The team had discussions with some members of the management staff led by the Managing Director, Mr Ibrahim Awal, before having a tour of some departments of the company.
In the company of the Finance Minister were the Executive Secretary of the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB), Mr Harry Owusu, the Commissioner of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Mr Emmanuel N. Doku, and his deputy, Mr Robert Kwami, the Commissioner of the Value Added Tax (VAT) Service, Mr Anthony Minlah, and the Deputy Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Mr K. E. Enyimayew.
Others were the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Nana Juaben-Boateng Serebuor, an official of the ministry, Dr Asamoah Baah, and Mr Kofi Nti of the Tax Policy Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and other officials from the agencies.
The visiting team expressed satisfaction at the performance of the company and commended both the management and the staff for contributing significantly towards national development.
Briefing the team, Mr Awal said Graphic as a company believed in credibility and high professional performance hence its leading position in the media landscape all these years.
The GCGL presently produces seven newspapers namely the Daily Graphic, the Mirror, Graphic Sports, Graphic Showbiz, Junior Graphic, Graphic Nsempa and the Advertiser.
Mr Awal said in the performance of their duties as producers of news stories, the company’s newspapers helped in the growth of businesses which in turn increased employment.
The Managing Director assured the minister and his entourage that the company would continue to do what was right as a media house and regularly pay dividends to the government to support the national economy.
Touching on the blogging system which is being used in the newsroom to assess reporters, Mr Awal said it brought out results and avoided disagreement between reporters and their supervisors, since the evidence of the level of one’s performance would be there for all to see, adding that remuneration was based on performance at all levels.
As part of the briefing process, a documentary on the activities of the company was shown to the Finance Minister and his entourage.
In his remarks, Mr Baah-Wiredu said it was refreshing to know that a company in Ghana was doing so well to increase productivity and also encourage its staff to perform.
He said he personally did not support the idea of dismissing people from their jobs but rather called for the adoption of methods to help individuals to develop themselves and improve upon their performance.
Mr Baah-Wiredu, who usually quoted from the Daily Graphic with dates and page numbers of individual issues of the paper, expressed the hope that GCCL could offer some suggestions to the revenue agencies in the area of assessing the output of their staff, since the country needed more from that sector to move forward.
He said the fact that the revenue agencies were able to exceed their target annually did not mean that all was well, adding that although they exceeded their target, what they collected was always far below the national expenditure.
Giving an example to support his assertion, the minister said as the estimated revenue target for 2008 stood at GG¢4.4 billion, the estimated financial requests stood at GH¢10 billion with other requests still coming in.
“We already have a gap of GH¢5.6 billion to fill; that is why we need to work hard,” he stressed.
He congratulated GCGL and expressed the hope that the company would share its experiences with other organisations to also develop.
After the meeting, the team visited the Daily Graphic newsroom where a Deputy Editor, Mr Emmanuel Amoako, briefed them on the blogging system and how individual reporters posted their stories for future reference.
The team also went to the Sports Department, the Photo Department, the Printing Section and the offices and the packaging section of G-Pak, a subsidiary of GCGL, which deals in printing and packaging for individuals and groups.
Staff of GCGL present at the meeting were the Editor of the Daily Graphic and President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Ransford Tetteh; the Public Affairs Manager, Mr Albert Sam; the General Manager in charge of Finance, Mr Baah Adade; the Chief Internal Auditor, Mr Felix Ahima-Adonten; and the General Manager in charge of Packaging, Mr Charles Antwi.