My signature… my promise, not presence!

My signature is my word! My pledge! It is a promise from me to you to undertake an activity or my warranty that I have received something from you.

A signature is a person's name written in a distinctive way as a form of identification in authorising a cheque, document or concluding a letter. This definition is by the Oxford online dictionary.

Early in any banking course, students are taught the sanctity of signatures on cheques and how depositors have an obligation to keep their cheques securely to prevent a stranger from forging a signature to fraudulently withdraw funds.

That is why it is unsettling that Public Relations Officers (PROs) across Ghana insist on journalists signing a form to indicate presence at functions.

Signature is identity

At a programme at one of the ministries sometime ago, I entered the reception where the names and signatures of journalists were, as usual, being taken.
I approached the reception with my colleague only to realise that an impersonator had come in earlier to write his name as that of my colleague and sign his signature as such.

In  confusion, we looked at each other.Then just as we started questioning the receptionist as to who the impersonator was, the attentive culprit, realising that he was about to be found out, hurriedly and stealthily left through a side door.

The receptionist was herself  bewildered at the development!

No one had been insisting on the production of any form of identification to corroborate the information being gathered!

Balancing

Anecdotes abound in journalism about how  some PROs insist on the signing of attendance sheets to balance their expenditures.

Normally, these attendance sheets have spaces after the signatures, and when money  collected by  the PROs for the planning of programmes do not balance out (due to the fact that they might have dipped their hands into the coffers for their own private use), they then resort to the sheets and pass on the excesses to, particularly, xjournalists.

Thus  a GH₵500 gap would be credited to journalists by dividing the amount by the number of journalists present and writing that amount by the signatures already gathered on the attendance lists.

With the teeming journalists who visit programmes, I daresay that some PROs have a field day spending privately some of the funds dedicated for the organisation of programmes!

I have had running battles with organisers of programmes who chase me with sheets to sign against my name.
I often tell them, “my signature on your sheet is not proof that I was present at your programme. My signature is my mark. I will not sign on any form and anywhere to litter my distinctive personal mark about. That is what I put on my cheques.”

Some understand after my short lecture although the majority insists, regardless, and get angry when I adamantly refuse.

I have also often wondered why organisers seldom put whatever money budgeted as ‘soli,’ transportation or whatever term they give such moneys into the hands of journalists before asking them to append their signatures on an attendance sheet.

Fraud

It seems the paramount motive for the attendance sheets is to balance out their excesses.

I believe it is unwise for signatures to be demanded merely to prove attendance at a function.

It is also a security risk as those forms, if not kept well, could fall into the hands of anyone who could forge a signature for fraudulent purposes.

I believe with the more than 150 institutions cited by the Data Protection Commission as having breached the Data Protection Act 2012, PROs must also be cited somewhere in there.

Let’s think about it! Why sign when no commitment is demanded or undertaking required?

PRO’s, it is only logical for journalists to sign to indicate the receipt of money not sign to indicate presence at functions.

Maybe the Institute of Public Relations (IPR) Ghana, must follow up on this as it seems the motive of the attendance sheets at programmes, particularly when it comes to the media, is to settle their accounts wrongly dissipated!

Let’s all guard our signatures and keep them secure!

Writer’s email: Caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh