Ethics Committee inaugurated to sanitise forest sector
The Ghana Institute of Foresters has inaugurated its Ethics Committee with a pledge to weed out quacks and sanitise the country’s forest sector.
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The five-member committee derives its mandate from the Professional Bodies Registration Act - 1973 (NRCD 143) and have the powers of a High Court.
The members of the committee who have the responsibility of ensuring discipline in the association are Dr Gloria Djaney Djabletey of the Forestry Research Institute, Mr Abukari Nantongmah Attah of the Forestry Commission, Prof. Kwabena Tufuor of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Mr Paul Ankrah, representing the private sector, and Dr Kwame Asamoah Adam, a former President of the institute.
They were led by a High Court judge, Justice Eric Kyei-Bafour, to swear the oaths of office and secrecy.
Internal revolution
At the ceremony, the National President of the association, Dr Kwakye Ameyaw, said the inauguration of the committee marked the beginning of an internal ethical revolution and “once we are able to cleanse the system, we would have the moral courage to go out into the public domain and correct the wrongs that afflict our society.”
He noted that the status of the committee was that of a high court and, therefore, anyone who would want to seek redress after being sanctioned would have to go to the Court of Appeal.
He said the committee would have the power to counsel recalcitrant members, issue warnings or expel members from the institute if they went wrong, and added that “once you are expelled, you lose your professional identity and your employer can dismiss you”.
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Dr Ameyaw stated again that “if we can inject discipline among ourselves, we can go out there and check people who are claiming to be foresters but are not professionals. We have to put our house in order first.”
He said the Ghana Institute of Foresters would soon publish all its members in good standing.
To the members of the committee, he said: “You are being brought in at a time all our forest resources are under threat. As professional foresters, we are also to blame.”
According to him, the members have the experience, skills and competence to be able to execute the task at hand.
Expertise
On behalf of the committee members, Dr Djabletey expressed appreciation to the association for considering them among their peers and pledged that the committee would live up to expectation as the foremost aim of every forester was to protect the forest and the environment.
The Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission, Mr Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, stated that the commission would work with stakeholders to protect the country’s forest from degradation and other forms of destruction.