GNA, NAFTI appeal for govt support to function effectively
The failure of the government to release subvention to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) over the past two years is adversely affecting the capacity of the agency to improve on its operations, the Managing Director (MD) of the company, Dr Bernard Otabil, has said.
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“For two years, we have not received any subvention from the government and this has affected our capacity to replace old vehicles, obsolete equipment, and motivate our staff,” he stressed.
He made the complaint when the Minister of Communication and Media Relations, Dr Edward Omane Boamah, and his two deputies, Mr Felix Ofosu Kwakye and Mr Ato Essuman, paid a working visit to the agency in Accra. They later visited the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI), also in Accra.
Dr Otabil said the state-owned agency currently had only two old vehicles to operate with but they were not even in good condition.
Budgetary constraints
Dr Otabil said the failure of the government to release subventions to the GNA over the past two years had imposed severe budgetary constraints on the agency, as well as limited its capacity to improve infrastructure, acquire new vehicles and computers for its offices and staff across the 10 regions.
The situation, he said, had been compounded by the failure of its subscribers, particularly private media outlets, to pay for sourcing GNA news over the years.
The poor remuneration of staff of the agency, he added, had also caused some workers to leave the company.
No in-house training
He said for a long time the agency had not been able to undertake in-house training for its reporters due to budgetary constraints and explained that such training helped to build the capacity of the reporters to produce accurate, balanced and quality reportage, as well as minimise errors.
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To address the problem, Dr Otabil said, the agency had set up a centre to train GNA reporters and had also developed systems and structures to support future growth.
For example, he said, the agency had set up a business team to organise seminars, conferences and other events, all aimed at helping to generate income.
Appeal for assistance
At NAFTI, the Rector, Professor Linus Abraham, called for the migration of the institute from the Ministry of Communication and Media Relations to the Ministry of Education, to enable it to seek funds for expansion.
He also appealed to the government to make adequate funds available to the institution as it used high energy- consuming gadgets to operate its studios.
Professor Abraham drew attention to some uncompleted projects at the institute, some of which, he said, had been abandoned for 33 years and appealed to the government for support to get them completed.
Reacting to the concerns of the GNA, Dr Boamah urged the management to enter into agreement with its patriots, to mobilise funds needed for its operations.
He indicated the government’s intention to resource the agency to make it profitable, adding that the agency needed to take advantage of the national ICT project to make it an apex medium for news gathering.