The Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority has been awarded the Anas Aremeyaw Anas Transparency Award at the 2nd edition of the Ghana Shippers awards for championing integrity and transparency in doing business at the nation’s ports.
The award was in recognition of GPHA’s role in campaigning against unethical practices in the Port which has led to the reduction in practices such as pilfering extortion and so on.
It will be recalled that the Port Authority gathered evidence of extortion from transit truck drivers who had raised several complaints about the level of extortion on the Ghanaian corridor.
Subsequently, a meeting was arranged between the Port Authority and Ghana Police Service who after viewing the investigative works issued a directive that no transit truck should be stopped on the corridor.
The Port Authority further met all Regional Commanders of the Police Service in Kumasi to sensitize them against corruption on the Transit Corridor.
The Port Authority went further to meet heads of various security institutions, such as Immigrations, Customs, BNI, National Security etc.
National Service Personnel who were posted to Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority embarked on an integrity campaign through the port community to sensitize port users on the need for them to stop paying bribes before services are rendered to them.
To strengthen the integrity cause, Ghana Ports and Harbors Authority named an Integrity Ambassador in the person of John Mba, who found a wallet in the port containing some foreign currencies at a time he was unemployed and handed over the wallet to Authorities. GPHA pushed for the then President of Ghana to recognize the late John Mba.
Again, the Marketing Department of the Port Authority embarked on a sensitization program on integrity for its staff. Officers of the department move from department to department to prevail on staff to observe a high level of integrity in the cause of their duties.
Former heads of the Ports issued directives to all port users that reduced wrong practices drastically.
Staff durbars were also held to sensitize staff to eschew negative practices like extortion and taking of bribes before rendering services to clients.
Several flyers were also printed by the Authority and distributed to staff and persons who do business with the Port Authority and allied stakeholders as part of the integrity campaign.
Today, many can attest in the Port that, the issue of pilfering which led to car parts getting missing at the Port has reduced considerably.