One accident, one committee

The setting up of committees to investigate accidents is becoming a trend in the country. Anytime there is an accident with high fatalities and destruction of property, government officials quickly come out with a statement of setting up a committee to investigate the root cause of the accident and also a call to conduct safety audit of similar facilities. 

The most recent of these committees is the statement by the Deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum following a visit to the Takoradi gas explosion site a few weeks ago. 

It must be stressed that the underlying problems of these accidents are health and safety gaps which must be given the necessary attention.

June 3 disaster

 The June 3 disaster, the Labadi gas explosion, the collapsed school building in the Central Region, the Kintampo Water Falls accident and now the Takoradi gas explosion were all attributed to health and safety lapses. We have not forgotten the May 9 Accra sports stadium disaster, which was partly attributed to safety lapses at the stadium. Merely setting up committees without proper structures to address these safety lapses only lead to the scratching of the surface of a bigger issue.

 It is worthy of note that all these accidents would have been investigated by a national body/authority if there was a health and safety law mandating the body to investigate all accidents and recommend new code of practices to avoid occurrences.

The call for health and safety law and code of practices to ensure public safety and health and safety at workplaces have come up several times. The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations mentioned it during this year’s Memorial Day celebration and President Nana Akufo-Addo repeated it at the May Day parade.

According to the International Labour Organisation, a worker dies from work- related accident or disease every 15 seconds and 6,300 people die as a result of occupational accidents or work-related diseases every day amounting to over 2.3 million deaths a year.

Again, globally more people are killed by occupational diseases than wars, yet managing health risks at work can be overwhelming for many businesses.

Laws and policies

Currently, there are Factories, Offices and Shops Act (1970) Act 328, Labour Act  (2003) Act 651, Fire Precaution (Premises) Regulations, 2003, LI 1724, the Minerals and Mining Regulations (Health, Safety and Technical)  2012 (LI 2182).  All these legislations are aimed at ensuring public safety, health and safety at workplaces, as well as protection of property.

Several seminars and workshops have been held to deliberate on how best to unify pieces of health and safety legislations in the country yet no decision has been made. A draft policy on Occupational Health and Safety developed as far back as year 2000 is yet to be adopted.

There are a number of institutions that are responsible for health and safety in various sectors of the country.  The Inspectorate Division of Minerals Commission is tasked with ensuring health and safety in mining operations. Ghana National Fire Service is in charge of fire safety at premises and installations. Factories Inspectorate Division is responsible for factories, offices, shops, ports and construction. The National Petroleum Authority is supposed to ensure health and safety in petrol and liquefied petroleum gas supplies and retailing. The Environmental Protection Agency Act mandates entry into factory premises and mine explosives storage by inspectors from the Environmental Protection Agency.

All these organisations are operating with different pieces of legislations. This has resulted in an overlap of some of the functions mandated by these pieces of legislation for different ministries and departments.  Every now and then there are disagreements among organisations over who is mandated to perform certain duties.

It is evident that many companies in the country have in place effective health and safety management systems based on internationally acceptable practices. Others have self-regulating regimes. However, there are no comprehensive national laws which make senior management liable for prosecution in the event of an accident at a workplace as a result of negligence on the part of management. When companies pay compensation to injured workers or families of a dead person that is the end.

Some incidents

 Many accidents have happened in the country claiming many lives. Senior management of companies and individuals whose negligence or gross breach of duty of care resulted in these accidents have gone unpunished.  Some of these accidents include June 3 disaster at  the  petrol station at circle, Labadi Liquefied Petroleum Gas dispensing station explosion, Melcom disaster, collapse of a school building killing six children and many more of such accidents that have occurred in the country.

The National Petroleum Authority in collaboration with the Ministry Of Energy and Petroleum is rolling out a policy of regular inspection of petrol and liquefied petroleum gas stations by safety officers. This decision comes after Takoradi liquefied petroleum gas explosion on May 9 this year injuring more than 100 people. 

It must be noted that inspection alone will not solve the problem. National Petroleum Authority and Ministry of Energy and Petroleum in conjunction with Oil marketing companies must also roll out training programmes for managers, supervisors and pump attendants on health and safety operations at petrol and liquefied petroleum gas stations.

We need multi sectorial approach, holistic laws and code of practices in dealing with health and safety matters in the country and not adhoc measures from ministries, departments and agencies and setting up of committees of investigations.

Again, a national body/authority must be set up to enforce the laws, prosecute companies and individuals whose negligence or gross breach of duty of care result in an accident. The authority should be mandated to investigate accidents and come out with new laws and code of practices for the law makers to approve as pertains in other jurisdictions.

Employer bodies, trade associations, trade unions, professional bodies, pressure groups have a vital role to play in the planning and the implementation of a new health and safety bill. Furthermore, Ghana should ratify International Labour Organisation Convention 155 which will enable the country to receive technical assistance from International Labour Organisation.

 The health and safety bill cannot be left hanging and efforts must be made to pass and implement it.  We should remind ourselves that accidents and incidents come with associated cost, pain and suffering and all efforts must be made to prevent them.

The writer is a Journalist and Health and Safety Expert.

simpsonisaac@hotmail.co.uk