Select Committee on Communications commits to policy reforms

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Communications have paid a one-day working visit to the Ghana Community Network (GCNet) to familiarise themselves with the operations of the company and its role in the 100% paperless regime roll out.

The 12 member delegation was led by the Chairman, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, Vice Chair Hon. Charles Bintim and the Ranking Member, Hon. A.B.A Fuseini. The visit was also intended to deepen their knowledge and understanding of policy-related issues so they can be addressed by parliament.

The Chairman and members of the Select Committee, expressed their satisfaction about GCNet’s preparedness to address bottlenecks in the clearance systems with the use of technology, which is required to enhance efficiency and improve business competitiveness of the country.

The working visit was also to engage management of GCNet to seek first-hand clarification of some reported process challenges that have bedeviled the implementation of the paperless regime. It was also to ascertain the possible challenges GCNet faced and steps taken to address them.

The members of the Select Committee were taken on a guided tour of the Networking Operating Centre, Call Support Centre and other facilities at GCNet by the Executive Director, Mr. Emmanuel Darko with support from the Chief Technical Officer, Mr. Matthew Soputamit.

The Product Development Manager of GCNet, Mr. Carl Sackey in a presentation explained the new process flow highlighting the key changes that GCNet had affected to upgrade its systems ahead of the 100% paperless regime on September 1, 2017.

He recalled that GCNet’s systems had been designed to support a paperless regime since inception from 2002.

“Between 2012 and 2014, we deployed the infrastructure and the paperless processing of clearance of goods was in force, but the lack of enforcement which is key to the success of the paperless initiative delayed its implementation,” he said.

Mr. Sackey told the Select Committee that given the robust infrastructure and network deployment, GCNet had the capacity and capability to handle end to end process of the 100% paperless regime.

He assured that GCNet had developed enhancements to the electronic delivery order and online container booking platforms of its systems as well as all systems configured to eliminate all forms of paper processing in the clearance chain.

The Executive Director of GCNet, Mr. Emmanuel Darko thanked the delegation for the visit and hoped the knowledge gathered about the operations of GCNet would positively influence policy decisions in improving the business competitiveness of the country.

The Committee pledged their support and commitment to policy reforms at the ports to impact port reforms.

The visit comes barely one month after the visit by the Trade, Industry and Tourism committee of Parliament which expressed satisfaction at the level of preparedness of GCNet for the implementation of the paperless transaction at the ports.