Lee Ocran
The Ministry of Education?s (MoE) tactics is threatening to collapse negotiations with local publishers.
This may likely stall the production of over 8 million books meant for pupils in primary three up to Junior High School (JHS) 3.
Confidential correspondence between members of the Ghana Book Publishers? Association (GBPA) available to DAILY GUIDE shows that the MoE had issued a controversial addendum to the original terms and conditions (Addendum 3).
This addendum, among other things, makes it difficult for the publishers to participate in the contract for the books. Close sources of the GBPA also say that the bidding processes also breached key procurement laws of the country.
For instance, the MoE is asking the publishers to pay fees of up to US$1 million before the contract is awarded to them. The ministry has also reduced the level of evaluation of the contract to the discretion of a few people at the top hierarchy of the ministry. ?It is too simple and lends itself to subjectivity?, says a confidential source at the GBPA.
Originally, the bid called for five publishers in each lot, but the MoE?s new addendum arbitrarily scrapped the figure to just one publisher. This will give only a few ?big players? in the publishing business the opportunity to benefit.
According to the angry publishers, this condition was a stark contravention of the procurement act.
?The same ministry that speaks about procurement law in one breath also goes against it, showing that it has no interest in the law but sees it as a convenient excuse to impose things. For instance, it is being claimed that the removal of the 5 publishers is against the law as per the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO). The same EOCO also said that submission fees are illegal. Why choose one and leave the other. These guys are not negotiating with us honestly,? the source complained.
The extremely unhappy publishers held an emergency meeting on June 22, 2012 to discuss the anomalies in the MoE?s conditions, and one main issue raised by members was the reduction of the delivery time of the text books from 90 days to 60 days.
This means that local publishers would be required to produce and ship over 8 million books in the next academic year within just 60 days. ?If we are sourcing 80% of the printing from outside the country, shipping alone would take 60 days?, said an angry GBPA member.
During the emergency meeting, the members concluded that the timeline would considerably compromise the quality of books that would be produced for basic school pupils in the country.
The manner in which the MoE has altered the terms of the bids for book publishing contracts has peeved them so much that if government fails to reconsider its position, the deal may be jettisoned, putting the realization of the National Democratic Congress? (NDC) National Text Book and Distribution Policy in dire danger.
In an earlier interview with DAILY GUIDE, Fauna Ata-Frempong, President of GBPA, expressed his misgivings about the Mills governments? commitment to giving local publishers the requisite opportunities to produce text books for local consumption.
According to him, despite several promptings, the ministry had failed to work out clear-cut modalities to facilitate local production of text books.
Already, an initial quota of 40% meant for local printers of the text books, in the policy, has been slashed to 20% by the government.
Ghana?s local publishing industry is buckling under extreme pressure from imported text books. The local market is losing between $100 million and $ 250 million annually to cheap book imports from mainly Asia.
By Raphael Adeniran
