Malawian delegation confers with acting GCGL MD

A delegation from the Ministry of Finance in Malawi and the State Enterprise Commission (SEC), Ghana has paid a courtesy call on the acting Managing Director (MD) of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Ransford Tetteh.

Yesterday’s meeting was to enable the delegation to familiarise itself with the operations of the GCGL, a state-owned enterprise, as part of reforms being undertaken in Malawi.

It included the Director at the ministry, Mr John Mabedi, the Deputy Director, Mr Twaib Ali, the Director of Human Resource, Mr William Chiomba, Ms Martha Chizimba, an economist, Ms Natasha Knadege and the Executive Director, Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation at SEC, Mr John Kwesi Mensah.

They were taken through the company’s operations,as well as the history of GCGL, its structures, financial management, subsidiaries, how the board is appointed and new initiatives in the offing.

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Visit

The leader of the delegation, Mr John Mabedi, said the visit was to confer with the SOE in Ghana to obtain first-hand information about its operations relating to financial management, the formulation and implementation of investment plans, working tools and monthly estimates.

He expressed the belief that the GCGL was the reliable source of information for those who sought it due to its credibility, status and recommendations by SEC.

“In Malawi, we are going through a reform in our para-status and some of the things we wanted to know from Ghana are the financial management, formulation of policies and investment decisions in SOEs,” he stated.

According to Mr Mabedi, the results gained at the meeting would be used to compare with that of Malawi’s and applied to the benefit of that country’s organisations.

He later said in an interview that the delegation was satisfied with the information that was provided by the acting MD, saying: “We have been well received and we are most grateful. We are going to present our report for action.”

Standards

For his part, Mr Tetteh said although the GCGL was set up by foreigners, the initial standards had been maintained, resulting in the company excelling on many fronts.

“Everybody cites us as a good example of an SOE and we are proud of that. This is because the company was set up by the British in 1950, but despite the challenges, the company has maintained its financial viability and that is the good thing,” he said.

He added that the Graphic Group prioritised accuracy and truth in all its reports, saying: “We are human and sometimes we rely on sources, and so if the sources are wrong, we could also be wrong. But because we don’t take our readers for granted, anytime our attention is drawn to mistakes in the paper we take immediate steps to correct them to remain credible and relevant.”

Innovation

Mr Tetteh said the company was also aware of readers’ changing needs, especially with the advent of social media, and added that the company would also increase its presence on those platforms.

“We are an old company but we do not want to think the old way. We are going to be innovative to attract readers,” he stated.

He also announced that the company was liaising with other TV channels to launch the Graphic TV soon.