Response To GSA Seizure Of Electrical And Building Materials

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How will fears enforcement of this nature be sustained as our national modus operandi, as we expect to go through the several transitions and transformations needed for our dear nation to move from a Third World nation to a Developed Nation status?

GSA as a “lawmaker”, with seizure and prosecuting powers? Great guys, good intent but may inadvertently be lowering the STANDARDS of our democracy.

The new GSA policies appear to be well intended but it’s application really needs to go back to the drawing board. We are not dealing with slaves that can be forced into submission. Ghanaians are more agile done can every be imagine as you may know... we are dealing with citizens who own the country and have the voting powers of the nation and government should never forget who they are working for.

The GSA “approach” (not the items seized - rather the process employed) borderlines vigilantism and harassment of citizens at best.

GSA may be exerting energies that can not be sustained but would rather put undue fear in citizens in the short term. Let me share why I think this approach risks hurting this government:

1. Citizens are not used to this methods of instant/abrupt changes and hash enforcements will make this government very unpopular... (ref Trump v The Whole World) I and the journey of this democracy be a lot more hostile.

It will be helpful if stakeholders (justice, interior, industry etc) are part of the planning process so that the “well functioning government arms” can be accountable, and share a collective outcome of a successful enforcement of a well thought through policies.

2. Sensitivity appears to be missing from this approach. Just as my concern with the building stress test to which I spoke in my previous submission, before GSA rolled out the standards, many people already had their goods in their warehouses, or in transit, and had not broken any laws that they know about.

Rolling out these standard just recently, and unilaterally enforcing them retroactively can be challenged in a court of law and I am sure that GSA will not win easily; and that could be an embarrassment (ref - reversal of trump’s fears application of his policies)?.... I suspect legal minds may already be at work. This can make Nana veeeery unpopular and could hurt in an election (ref, Democrats taking over the house during election). Note: they keyword here is instilling undue FEAR into the citizens of the nation, especially for not breaking any law!

3. I think GSA should look at successful models of ‘developed countries’ and consider employing relevant aspects of them.

4. Let me offer a scenario. Let’s say USA government suddenly requires a product to be labeled with a critical or harmful warning. What happens then? Do they suddenly start seizing products from warehouses and citizens? HECK NO! Rather, the public service arm takes on a campaign to make citizens aware, they encourage cell phone companies and other media outlets to broadcast urgent awareness... such as TV ads taken to inform the public... even product competitors would advertise their products as “better products”, sighting full compliance.... effect? Those products die a natural death... WHILE CONTROLLING THE PORTS (one of the most broken entities in Ghana) NOT TO ACCEPT BRIBES TO LET unauthorized goods IN THE COUNTRY simultaneously.

Here, no law has been broken by these people because their goods were already on the market prior to these policies, and GSA has presented no evidence to the contrary ....

Again when citizens feel harassed for breaking no law at the time they acquired their goods the nation is set behind.

Also part of me is asking if GSA may be overstepping your mandate. I am wondering if the GSA Charter includes policy making, being investigators , having arrest seizure and destroy powers. I have not yet read the GSA charter but an entity should not have the powers to do all these, wouldn’t you agree?

My recommendation are as follows:
a. Plan with sustainability in mind
b. Research models that work and borrow some aspects from those.... at the end of the day we are dealing with humans

c. Get stakeholders involved (Justice, interior, industry etc) so that other arms of government can do their work else you can be challenged in court and can even be held liable for harassing citizens of the nation to comply with something that GSA just came up with, forgetting that they had not violated any laws of the land prior to the new GSA policies coming out.

I think GSA should consider getting some strong minds together, review your strategic priorities a bit more, clearly define tactical approach for achieving objectives of your department that speaks to this issue. By all means get relevant stakeholders involved on your outreach activities so that you do not end up being the policeman of the nation.

Please plug your energy into the system (all stakeholders) and work together to refine the broader process and hold each stakeholder accountable to execute their task effectively. One man show is not efficient and certainly not sustainable.

We need to build our nation on rocks, not in sand.
Cheers,
Dr. Michael Buadoo
“GhanaBa”