Communications Minister, Haruna Iddrisu on Tuesday tasked the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Commission (PCSRC) to weed out all unlicensed postal and courier service operators in the system saying it was criminal for them to continue to offer services to the public. According to the Minister, the PCSRC constituted an important ally in the fight against the drug menace hence the need for the service providers to acquire the necessary licence to operate. Mr Iddrisu gave the directive during a familiarization tour to the Commission’s premises in Accra. The visit was to afford the Minister the opportunity to acquire first hand information about the Commission’s operations. Statistics provided by the PCSRC indicate that only 37 institutions are licensed service providers. The PCSRC became operational in September 2005 through Act 649, as a regulatory body with the mandate to license and regulate the operation of postal and courier services in Ghana. Mr Iddrisu recounted the difficulty in tracking mails in Ghana and urged players in the postal and courier service to develop software to track them. “Take advantage of the emergence of technology to acquire the needed software to track mails to ensure that parcels and gifts arrive safe and on time. Consumers need to obtain the needed satisfaction from services rendered at the end of the day.” The Minister was not happy about the country’s general postal addressing system over the past decade, adding “it should be possible that we know the places of abode of people so that they could be held responsible for any offences committed by them”. According to him churches, trees and kiosks, among others, were being used as points of contact when it came to postal addresses. The Minister therefore called for a comprehensive national policy on addressing systems in order to control and combat crime. He noted that the advent of internet posed a major challenge to the players in the postal and courier business but tasked them to take advantage of the emerging technology and improve on their services. Mr Daniel Quarcoo, Deputy Minister of Communication, who accompanied Mr Iddrisu urged the PCSRC to ensure that stakeholders provided quality service adding that the Ministry would lend its support to weed out recalcitrant postal and courier service providers. Mr Samuel Kojo Intsiaba, Executive Secretary, PCRSC, cautioned all illegal operators that the commission would soon embark on an enforcement exercise which would lead to prosecution. “We wish to urge all large mailers, such as the financial institutions, mobile phone companies, educational institutions and professional associations to desist from using the services of unlicensed courier operators,” he said. Mr Instiaba said as part of ensuring efficient postal services, the commission had taken steps to provide guidelines in setting up economic rates for basic postal services to halt the losses being made by the Ghana Post. He pleaded with government to help the commission with funds to recruit more personnel and ensure effective monitoring in the postal market. Mr Intsiaba further urged government to support the development of a “National Addressing Infrastructure” that would indicate the network of street names and house numbers. This, he said, would help increase revenue, through improved tax collection and provide basic social services to the public. At the Ghana-Indian Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence, Mr. Iddrisu told the management that the Ministry recognized the centre as a strategic institution for Information Communication Technology (ICT) development. He announced that the legal framework that would guarantee their existence and operations would be ready this year. According to the Minister a programme dubbed e-School that would expose the youth to ICT and provide affordable laptops would also be launched this year by government. He therefore urged the centre to market its programmes and provide subsides so as attract more clients. According the Minister, ICT had enormous benefits when it came to the socio-economic development of every nation and therefore urged the centre to demystify ICT so that the youth could tap the maximum benefit. Mrs Dorothy Gordon, Director-General of the Centre, who took the Minister round, said the Centre was striving to ensure widespread representation in all the 10 regions. According Mrs. Gordon, the centre was also collaborating with some polytechnics to ensure students benefited from its programmes. Source: GNA