Ghana Post introduces Corporate Mail Bag service

Koforidua, March 18, GNA - The Ghana Post Company Limited has started a pilot "Corporate Mail Bag" service under which it provided door-to-door mail delivery service to corporate customers using the Private Mail Bag system.

The system, which had started in Accra for a month's free pilot service, would be extended to other parts of the country on commercial basis.

The Managing Director of the company, Mr Kofi Dua Adonteng, announced this at the opening of the company's annual review meeting at Koforidua on Thursday.

The meeting was under the theme: "Taking the post business forward in competitive environment".

Mr Adonteng also announced the setting up of special business units of the company to focus on certain aspects of its operations such as the Expedited Mail Service (EMS), Post Shop, Swift Post and Financial Services.

He decried the poor performance by some sections of the company, saying the heads of all the units would be made to sign performance contracts by which they would be judged, adding that anyone who fell short of the contract would be sanctioned accordingly. "The time has come for all staff of the company to recognize the new phase of our business in which we are in and no more as a bureaucracy", he emphasized, adding "those who adapt themselves properly would become part of the new corporate heritage we are try to build." Mr Dua Adonteng who deplored poor working environment in the company also identified the embezzlement of the "little revenue" being generated by some staff and cited the Ashanti Region as where the menace was more rampant.

He blamed the situation on poor supervision by some General Managers and Regional Heads who did not go round thereby enabling the operatives to take advantage of their absence to indulge in their negative acts.

Mr Adonteng reminded them of the keen competition and sophistication that the postal and courier industry had become, not only from big companies but also the advent of the E-mail and Internet and "faceless and informal practitioners".

He identified some challenges inherited by the company after the separation from the former Post and telecommunication Corporation as lack of adequate capitalization, low technological resources and remuneration.

The Chairman of the Board of the company, Prof. Robert Addo Fenning, asked the staff to undertake research for innovations in the design and packaging of products and embark on diversification and computerization to enable the company face the challenges in the industry.

He said the company paid dividends of 450 million cedis and 300 million cedis to government in 2002 and 2003 respectively and appealed to government to waive the payment to enable it plough back the funds to provide financial stability for the company.