THE President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, over the past few days has paid unannounced visits to key institutions in the country to acquaint himself with their operations and offer some words of encouragement to the hardworking workers there.
Of particular interest to the Daily Graphic is the President’s visit to the revenue collecting agencies in Accra and Tema where he expressed concern over the attitude of some custom officials who engage in acts of economic sabotage.
The action of the President is known as “management by working about” in management circles and it is a good principle for any manager who wants to know exactly what is happening at the shop floor level.
The Daily Graphic strongly believes that the interaction of the President with the various levels of workers in these institutions will also serve as a form of motivation to the workers and enable them to do more with the limited resources they have at their disposal.
At those meetings with the workers, the President did not mince words and gave praise where it was due and equally sounded a note of warning and caution where it was most needed.
We think that both the advice and the warning from the President should serve as wake-up calls for those concerned and spur them on to do what is just, right and fair at all times.
The economy cannot grow on the back of people whose main aim is to enrich themselves through whatever means.
We have always insisted that unless the authorities crack the whip on those who break the regulations, the country cannot achieve much in its development agenda. Very often, we do not want to incur the displeasure of people who exploit the system in order not to disturb the industrial peace, but the activities of wrongdoers who exploit the loopholes create major challenges for the entire society.
The Daily Graphic believes that the challenges that the President’s visits have brought to the fore will be addressed without fear or favour in order to free the necessary revenue needed by the government to pursue the better Ghana agenda.
As the President pointed out, the acts of malfeasance had gone on for a very long time to enrich the pockets of the perpetrators but the time had come for the country to take decisive steps to deal with the economic saboteurs.
The thumbs up given to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, and his team for working hard to stabilise the economy means that there are still very hardworking people committed to the national interest, as against those concerned with personal gain.
Indeed, the Finance Minister has worked very hard over the last one year to put the economy on track and he needs the encouragement and support of well-meaning Ghanaians. The task of reconstruction cannot be accomplished by just a few individuals, while majority of the people, especially those at key revenue centres such as CEPS, decide to enrich themselves.
The President has sensitised all of us to the challenges ahead of the country. But he cannot do this every day, hence the need for every responsible citizen to insist on doing what is right. The Daily Graphic believes that we should not just talk about the challenges but act swiftly to bring all wrongdoers to book to serve as a deterrent to others who think the only way to make it in life is to cut corners.
When people suffer the penalty for breaking our laws, there will be order in our society. Presently, there is disorder because too many people get away with wrongdoing.
The Daily Graphic hopes that the President’s words of encouragement to Dr Duffuor will motivate all his colleagues in government to focus on the better Ghana agenda.
We also urge all Ghanaians, no matter their status, to resolve now to contribute their quota towards nation-building.
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