Overhaul Ghana’s electoral supply chain management – Prof. Boateng
Ghana’s electoral supply chain urgently need major overhauling, Professor Douglas Boateng, the South Africa-based Ghanaian Professor of the UNISA Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL) in South Africa, has said.
He said the country must immediately consider the hiring of supply chain experts at the highest level into the Electoral Commission (EC) to increase its value chain understanding and service delivery effectiveness.
Making the suggestion in a statement on Tuesday in Accra, Prof Boateng said decision makers from all sides of the political spectrum must agree and initiate and institute major electoral chain reforms that would be able to withstand the pressures arising from an increasingly sophisticated and demanding electorate, especially in the 2016 general polls.
Prof Boateng, who is also the President of the Institute of Operations Management Africa and chairs the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Africa Advisory Board, made the recommendation in the light of the August 29, 2013 Supreme Court’s ruling.
He said in spite of the calmness in the wake and aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling, the truth still remained that Ghana’s electoral supply chain urgently needed major reforms to avoid another potential crisis in 2016 and beyond.
Prof Boateng indicated that the reforms were necessary to avoid another costly and potentially damaging electoral supply chain management against the fact that the next election would definitely provide even much tougher test for both the EC and Ghana’s relatively young democracy.
According to him, there was a genuine cause for concern if the 2004, 2008 and 2012 elections were used as benchmark for what could potentially happen in 2016.
“If there are no concrete supply chain driven actions, our beloved country men may not be so lucky next time round”.
The Professor’s concern was premised on the ineffective electoral supply chain management, which he said caused the election petition and cautioned against ignoring the fact that the election petition hearing, which he described as “a whole avoidable saga”.
He said the process had cost the country a fortune in lost productivity, good will and local direct investment, which would take several years to potentially recoup noting further that the cost on the Ghanaian psyche was also immeasurable.
According to him, the Supreme Court ruling in no way absolved the EC of its relatively poor display of understanding of their fiduciary responsibility in the face of service quality, electoral logistics, procurement and supply chain management during cross examination at the election petition hearing.
Prof Boateng said the fact that tension had risen to unacceptable levels among the people in the last four elections was indicative that the electorate was not fully satisfied with the services rendered by the EC hence, the need for decision makers to consider the proposed reforms in supply chain management at the EC.
He congratulated President John Mahama and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for their nobility in the face of the unfortunate crisis caused by a comparatively ineffective electoral supply chain management system.
He commended the two leaders of the two main political parties for acknowledging the fact that the peaceful triumph was for Ghana and not any political party or an individual.
Source: GNA