A member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communication Sam George is calling for the dissolution of the governing board of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
According to him, the board’s handling of the public spat that greeted the state broadcaster’s decision to prosecute persons who will default in the payment of the mandatory Television License Fee was poor.
The governing board earlier this month instructed the Director General of the Corporation, Dr. Kwame Akuffo Anoff-Ntow, to proceed on leave.
The ‘proceed on leave’ directive which was issued Monday January 15, 2018, was informed by the Corporation’s unpopular resolve to prosecute people who will default in the payment of the mandatory Television License Fee.
The Chief Justice recently set up a special TV License Court to handle cases of defaulters.
The decision has courted huge public outcry with many Ghanaians declaring they will not pay leading to the governing board to intervene, ordering the Corporation to halt its plans.
Speaking on Morning Starr Friday January 19, 2018, Mr. George who is also the MP for Ningo Prampram said the governing board cannot exonerate itself from the unpopular decision to prosecute those who will default in paying the mandatory Television License Fee.
“The questions we must ask ourselves are that is the DG (Director General) taking the fall for a collective policy that has gone wrong? Where was the board when the Director General met with the Chief Justice and requested for the setting up of those eleven courts?
“My information is that the meeting with the Chief Justice is not a meeting of the Director General, It was a meeting of the board with the Chief Justice and the Director General is the member of the board.
“So, it is incorrect and inconceivable that the board met with the Chief Justice requested the setting up of these tribunals to prosecute defaulters of the TV license and the board in itself is claiming that they did not know anything about it,” he told Morning Starr host Francis Abban.
“I think that the next step is for the Minister to dissolve the board because that board is inefficient. From as far back as October last year the DG has taken several steps towards the actualisation of this TV License and the board was in the dark,” he added.
But a Deputy Communications Minister George Anda disagreed stressing, “I think the decision made by the GBC board is in the right direction because there are very competent people on the board.”
Source: Ghana/StarrFMonline.com/103.5FM
