This is no time for blame game
The inferno that engulfed the Central Medical Stores (CMS) in Tema last Tuesday did not only raze down the entire warehouse but also left Ghana poorer by GH₵237 million after the destruction.In Ghana, no one claims responsibility for such destruction of state property, let alone resigns for negligence of duty.
Advertisement
It is no secret that even before full investigations are conducted into the cause of the fire, it is clear that the security of the facility and the medicines that were kept there was compromised.
In the end, it is the people who will bear the brunt of the shortage of much needed medicines and we may have to pay for similar medicines at a higher price.
While we bemoan our loss as a nation, however, a very unpleasant feature in our body politic has once again reared its head.
The Daily Graphic wonders who owns the many hydrants dotted across the country, since two key state agencies — the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) and the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) — are running away from their ownership and responsibility.
While the GWCL says the management of hydrants at establishments considered security zones, including the CMS, is the duty of technicians of those establishments, the GNFS insists that it is the preserve of the GWCL.
The GNFS, therefore, blames the GWCL for not ensuring that the hydrant at the CMS was functional at the time of the fire, but the water company also insists that it pumped enough water to the hydrant on the premises of the CMS.
As is to be expected in such banters, the GNFS has extricated itself from any blame, since it claims the hydrant had no water in it.
We find this development very disturbing because, in our view, it is such unnecessary blame games that state agencies paid with the taxpayer’s money engage in after each mishap that make us lose focus as a country.
We believe that it is time for us to find solutions to our problems, instead of always trying to blame others for things we have all contributed to.
Passing the buck will in no way help find lasting remedies to the many maladies of the nation. It rather sends us back thousands of years as a people and so worsens already bad situations.
As the Head of Public Relations at the GNFS, Mr Ellis Robinson Okoe, rightly stated, consumers paid for water for fire fighting as part of their water bills paid to the GWCL.
What is left for the GWCL to do is ensure that water runs through the hydrants as is required.
However, since the hydrants are also a security issue, we believe the GNFS is the best establishment to oversee their maintenance and use at all times.
The GNFS, therefore, needs to have a national map of all hydrants and regularly supervise their operation and maintenance to once and for all do away with the annual ritual of blame whenever a hydrant is found faulty in the heat of the moment.
Hydrants are national security assets and the GNFS must also ensure that they are very secure and accessible wherever they are found and any individual or establishment found abusing or obstructing them dealt with according to the law.
We believe that if the GNFS owns the hydrants, their greater care would be ensured, as well as their operational ability.