Government Assures Ghanaians of Secured Address System

The Minister for Communication, Mrs Ursula Ekuful, has given the assurance that the new Digital Address System, which was launched, last week, had been tested and was safe for use by all Ghanaians.

Mrs Ekuful, who was addressing the media at a news conference in Accra on Friday, was emphatic that information put on the system could not be hacked into as client information was protected, adding that not every information of citizens was required on the domain and that seasoned Information Technology (IT) experts had carefully arranged and tested it, ensuring that individual information was secured as government would want individuals to be able to easily access government benefits easily.

She said the system had been made very simple and user-friendly even by persons who had little or no knowledge in IT to ensure that no one was left out of the benefit to be derived, adding that even the 'waakye' and ' kenkey' sellers could also boost their businesses through this as they could be easily located by every individual using the Digital Address System.

Mrs Ekuful debunked the assertion that government ignored progress made by previous government on the establishment of the address system, using a company called Suba, stating that government was not aware of such contract as the Digital Address System formed part of an Electronic Communication Operability (ECO) government was building to make the country more business-friendly.

The Minister urged all IT experts to be part of collaborative efforts to support the System as well as contribute to ensuring that a well-established system was built as the system was currently on pilot basis and to become fully functional once the national identification cards were ready so that it would be linked to ensure interoperability.

On the issue of critics, the Minister for Information, Alhaji Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, urged Ghanaians and the media, especially, to provide feedback that would contribute to the development of a better Ghana.

He said the media played a vital role in society and it was important for government to continue to meet them and encourage them to make criticism with nationalism, openness and frankness rather than allowing themselves to be used as conduit for transmitting other people's disruptive criticisms.

Mr Abdul-Hamid indicated that government would execute its mandate to build a nation with maximum commitment, skill, integrity and honesty, stressing that though they might make mistakes that would attract criticisms, only criticisms that would contribute to building a better nation would be embraced.

In a statement, the Managing Director of Ghana Post, Mr James Coffie, mentioned that to ensure the country got value for her money, his outfit ran an advert in the daily newspapers for a national competitive tender bid in April 2017 and six companies were shortlisted based on the criteria stated in the daily newspapers during the advert. Touching on procurement.

Mr Coffie explained that the document for tender contract were reviewed after which an evaluation report was forwarded to the Central Tender Review Board.

He said the Central Tender Review Board also reviewed and approved the recommendation made by the panel of Ghana Post who sat on the tender document after which it was sent to the Ministry of Finance for budgetary certificate and approval, and after which the contract was signed and awarded under the supervision of the Attorney General.

He said Vokakom came in as the lowest evaluated bid while the highest bid came in as 170 million Ghana cedis.

Mr Coffie said the Vokakom price for the bid included the solution, the service, the marketing campaign and licensing as well as VAT which has 1.7 million Ghana cedis going back to the state he disclosed.

Source: ISD (Chantal Aidoo)

Read Full Story