Honour obligation to publishers

When the Ministry of Education announced its decision to cede 100 per cent of the printing of government textbooks to local printers in 2021, it was seen as practicalising President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's Ghana Beyond Aid.

The decision generally received a groundswell of support from among Ghanaians because it was a move to empower Ghanaian publishers and grow the local printing industry as well.

The decision was very significant in two folds – growth of the local industry and creation of jobs.

Firstly, the decision came shortly after the global COVID-19 pandemic that brought economies all over the world to their knees and as a result all governments were looking for a means to revive their economies.

So, a number of big names in the global publishing industry from outside the country attempted to scuttle a well-intentioned and transformational directive by persuading our publishers so that they could generate jobs in their respective countries to the detriment of our teeming youth.

It was commendable how the ministry insisted on carrying out the directive and making sure that everything would be done locally, thus growing the local industry and creating the needed jobs for our youth.

The publishers, with their corresponding printers, accepted the challenge and made sure that they met the three-month deadline given them under the contract, starting from June 2022.

Aside from engaging more personnel, most of the printers had to take loans to refurbish their machines and place orders for the raw materials to augment their capacity.

Unfortunately, over a year after the books had been printed and handed over to the ministry, only 20 per cent of the contract sum has so far been paid, with the remaining 80 per cent still outstanding.

At the 47th annual general meeting (AGM) of the association in Accra last week, the President of GPA, Asare Konadu Yamoah, made a passionate appeal to the government to honour its side of the bargain by paying them the remaining 80 per cent of the contract sum to help them reduce further liabilities its members were saddled with.

The Daily Graphic finds this development unfortunate.

It is imperative that the ministry must take steps to ensure that the publishers are paid quickly.

The situation of the members of the association is dire because most of them went in for credit facilities from their banks and had to go through the trouble of servicing these facilities while still waiting for the ministry to pay them.

It is instructive to note that all this happened within the context of having to suffer foreign exchange losses as their production inputs were all imported. 

Truth is, with all these costs in their books, even if they are paid the amount agreed on, they will be at the losing end.

It is interesting that the contract agreement weighed more on the publishers, where publishers were to be surcharged if the printing delayed beyond the agreed three months but the contract agreement was silent on what should happen when payments delayed.

That call is not too much for the Ministry of Education to lead a conversation at the highest level to ensure that these publishers are not worse off.

The GPA is justified for bringing the issue to the front burner because the longer the loans remain, the more interest they would have to pay and for us, the time to pay the publishers is now and any further delay would be a disaster to their businesses.

Let it not look as if it is a punishment for the local publishers to accept to do the work.

They did a yeoman’s job and, therefore, need to be commended, applauded and paid promptly, especially when they delivered the job ahead of schedule. 

After all, we cannot run away from the fact that the labourer deserves his wages.

Indeed, the publishers deserve their wages and the ministry must consider the payment of the work by the publishers as an obligation.