Ms Elaine Sam (middle), the President of the Institute of Public Relations (IPR), addressing journalists on the IPR Week celebration. With her are Mr Charles Adjei Tetteh (left), the Executive Secretary of IPR, and Mr Henry Nii Dottey, National Secretary, IPR. Picture: BENEDICT OBUOBI

IPR calls for dialogue to restore moral, national values

Philip Boateng Kessie & Prince Acquah Sep - 18 - 2018 , 09:35 3 minutes read

The Institute of Public Relations (IPR) is calling for a national dialogue on the way forward to restore moral and national values in the country.

According to the President of the institute, Ms Elaine Sam, negative attitudes such as the lack of respect for authority, loss of personal integrity and deliberate disregard for national symbols ought to be dealt with in the interest of national development.

“The recent issues in the financial sector of our country point to the basic fact that the loss of our value system can be blamed for bad corporate governance,” she contended.

Ms Sam made the call at the launch of the 2018 IPR Week in Accra yesterday.

The theme for the year 2018 week celebration is: “Deriving values from value — A test for corporate governance”.

Sanitation

Ms Sam stressed that the time had come for members of the public to be disciplined in the management of waste in the country.

“We need to be looking back to those days when we had sanitary inspectors to ensure that there was proper disposal of waste,” she said and added that there should also be sanitation courts to impose fines on households that did not follow good sanitary practices.

She said the theme for the IPR Week celebration was a wake-up call for all individuals to be disciplined in waste management and other aspects of lives to make Ghana a better place to live in.

Public Relations

Ms Sam also called on corporate organisations to invest in their communicators by giving them professional training in Public Relations to enhance their communication competencies.

She appealed to the media to be instrumental in the nation’s development agenda by helping to educate and shape the attitudes of people, especially on national issues.

Other activities

As part of the week-long celebration, a former Director of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), Mr Kojo Yankah, will deliver a lecture today on the theme: “Delivering values from value”.

The lecture is expected to touch on areas such as corporate governance, the regulatory environment and the guiding principles of values.

As part of the activities of the IPR for the rest of year 2018, Dr Margaret Amoakohene, a member of the Council of State; Mr Emmanuel Allotey-Pappoe, a fellow of the IPR and former President of the Africa Public Relations Association (APRA), and other personalities are expected to lead various PR conversations aimed at expanding the body and sharing of knowledge among PR practitioners and other stakeholders at the institute’s annual general meeting (AGM) and national conference from October 17 to 19, 2018.

The three-day event, which will take place in Winneba, will also be used to take stock of the institute’s activities and also forecast into the next year when new leaders will be elected.