The Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority under the Land Use and Spatial Planning Act, 2016 (Act 925) as well as the National Identification Authority (NIA) may be under attack.
Two of Ghana’s Parliamentary Select Committees are seriously lobbying the Executive to consider Subah Infosolutions Ghana Limited to partner the government in undertaking the national identification project. The Committees on Finance and Lands and Forestry spoke through their Chairmen namely Hon. Dr. Mark Assibey Yeboah and Hon. Benito Owusu-Bio respectively.
Our research desk at TNF has been following closely the effort at fulfilling the promise of building a reliable national database and also map out property to establish ownership for revenue collection purposes.
TCPD developed the Land Use Planning and Management Information System (LUPMIS) for Methodology – Software-Human Resource – Data-Conventions – Hardware – Management – Public Relations for Land Use Planning and Management in Ghana.
Officials at the TCPD who spoke to TNF on condition of anonymity questioned why high levelled officials would be asking for partnership with a private company in the execution of a state duty. The mandate of the TCPD and NIA are clear. “The activities for which these senior persons in government are calling for partnership with Subah all fall under the mandate of specific statutory institutions.” Said a top official at NIA.
Preliminary investigation conducted by TNF have revealed that quite a sizeable amount investment has been sunk into both the NIA work of building a national database as well as property mapping for revenue collection. Why at this stage all the preparatory work undertaken by these institutions would be thrown away or handed-over on a silver platter, the way our officers of State are clamouring for Subah’s involvement is surprising.
SUBAH Info, it would be recalled was accused of taking payment from Government for the same work that was undertaken by the Global Voices Ghana, GVG in the monitoring of international telephone traffic on all the Telecommunication Companies in Ghana.
The Town and Country Planning Department (TCPD), now an Authority, was established in 1945 and charged with the responsibility of planning and management of growth and development of cities, towns and villages in the country.
It therefore seeks to promote sustainable human settlements development based on principles of efficiency, orderliness, safety and healthy growth of communities.
It is a unique service delivery Department under the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology. The TCPD, until the administrative reforms of the 1980s, operated purely as a Civil Service Department with the Head Office in Accra and branch offices at the Regions and the Districts.
Prior to 1993, responsibility for planning lay with the Minister responsible for Town and Country Planning (The Town and Country Planning Act of 1958 (Act 30). The major weakness over the years has been limited attention to TCPD/LUSPA
This modified the provision of the Town and Country Planning (Gold Coast), CAP 84 which had established a Town and Country Planning Board, responsible for the orderly and progressive development of land, towns and other areas whether rural or urban, and the preservation and improvement of amenities in these areas.
Key among the issues being raised against the option of engaging a private company is the risk of putting sensitive information into private hands susceptible to manipulation for negative ends. If we have state bodies who have a mandate, why do we shift same to some private, profit making company?
There is nowhere in the world where national databases of this kind are kept in the hands of private entities. The issue is that the government either buys the software from the private sector or a private entity is given the strict licence to build a system with binding data security requirements after which government takes it over.
‘Because the critical issues are - What are the ownership parameters, confidentiality, how does government control abuse of data use by the private operator such as the private person dealing with government and selling the data to other for money which Subah can easily do because of his love for money.’
TNF is following this unfolding keenly this development and would keep our dear readers updated
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