Ghana’s Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, is putting measures in place to ensure efficiency in the distribution of premix fuel to fishermen in the country.
In that regard, the Ministry has contracted Kwame Asante & Associates, an Accounting and Management Consulting firm, to assess the performance of the National Premix and the Landing Beach Committees (LBCs).
The exercise is also to ensure that the commodity was sold at approved prices and ensure that individuals and groups who were not in the fishing industry do not get involved in the distribution of the product.
Addressing a stakeholders’ meeting at the Ministry, the Sector Minister, Ms. Hanny-Sherry Ayitey said the move had become necessary due to numerous complaints about the delivery of premix fuel to local fishing communities.
According to her, the industry had been confronted with many challenges, including diversion of fuel to unauthorized recipients and sale of fuel at prices above recommended prices with adverse impact on the operations of fishermen and loss of revenue to government.
She said government hoped to revamp the fishing industry, improve the livelihood of fishermen and promote development programmes at the communities.
She noted that it was for those reasons that government, in enacting the premix fuel laws, included 50% revenue retention to the landing beach committees to develop the community after the settling the cost of the supply.
She expressed happiness that some of the landing beaches had initiated some projects such as boreholes, streetlights, police stations and maternity wards from the profits made from the sales of premix fuel.
The Chief Executive Officer of Kwame Asante & Associates, Mr. Richard Kwame Asante, noted that the duty of the firm was to assess the performance of the National Premix and Landing Beach Committee, identify problems and make recommendations to address those problems.
He was hopeful that issues of regular supply, right price and quantity would be addressed.
Additionally, the assessment would help ensure that the commodity got to the right destination to prevent it from going into the wrong hands at the expense of fishermen, he said.
2014 Government of Ghana Official Portal