GAF commended for efforts to revamp Kumasi Shoe Factory

Koforidua, Aug. 6 GNA - The People's Independent Movement (PIM), a pressure group, on Friday commended the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF's) for entering into a partnership deal with a Czechoslovakian Company, the Knights, for the take-over and reactivation of the Kumasi Shoe Factory. A statement signed by Nana Addo-Aikins, spokesman for PIM, and copied to GNA, said the Movement considered the partnership, which the GAF described as its conceptual response to government's new approach to publ= ic sector reform, as a worthy innovation that should be followed by other government establishments.

It said: 93To the PIM, the Ghana Armed Forces partnership deal with t= he Knights would go a long way in helping to minimize allegations of corruptio= n in award of contracts being levelled against government officials, if the discipline within the Ghana Armed Forces is anything to go by". The statement stressed that the PIM was of the view that the GAF partnership deal was a creative initiative that could make government establishments self-sufficient, provide a viable alternative for the carrying out of government development programmes as well lessen the strain on government budgets for the carrying out of development programmes not to mention the employment they would generate.

It said 93To the PIM, the Ghana Armed Forces partnership deal with th= e company need be adopted in the funding of the Universities and other public establishments by government, especially in areas where feasibility studies and technical know-how are needed in the carrying out of government development programmes".

The statement advised that such partnerships must be adopted for the award of bigger contracts to the Ghana Armed Forces for road and bridge construction with an additional objective to reduce excessive spending and the carrying out of shoddy work in those sectors, which were now in the hands of foreigners and other private contractors. It said such a move could result in the creation of the necessary environment for the provision of alternative resources to government establishments in addition to making them less dependent on government. "Ghana now needs innovation and creativity towards the handling of t= he national reconstruction exercise that she has been undertaking in the way and manner the Ghana Armed Forces partnership deal with the company is bein= g handled", the statement said. It called on the unemployed youth in the Ashanti Region to put politic= s aside and whole-heartedly embrace the GAF's take over and reactivation of the shoe factory, which was basically aimed at providing employment. The statement advised the unemployed to work hard when employed at the factory after its rehabilitation, to give meaning to government's efforts= at solving the nation's employment problem.