By Albert Allotey
Accra, July 2, GNA – The Vision for Alternative Development – Ghana (VALD-Ghana) has called on the Tobacco Control Inte-Agency Coordinating Committee to place a high priority on surveillance of tobacco industry operations to prevent it from breaching the Tobacco Control Legislation.
It said: “There is an obvious breach of the tobacco control legislation, which serves the interests of the cigarette business.
“For instance, the continued sale of single sticks of cigarettes despite a ban, the rise of illegal tobacco products on the market, the arrival of tobacco products marked ‘Duty-Free’ at the country’s ports, and others all result in enormous benefits and incentives for the tobacco industry while the nation loses enormous amounts of money.”
This was in one of the three reports launched by VALD-Ghana at the maiden National Forum on Tobacco Taxation in Accra to support tobacco control in Ghana.
The reports are Ghana Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2023, Baseline Assessment of Tobacco Taxation in Ghana, 2024, and Novel and Emerging Tobacco and Nicotine Products in Ghana, 2024.
The report said as required by the Tobacco Control Measures of Act 851, the Ministry of Health needed to collaborate extensively with civil society organisations (CSOs) and other stakeholders to draft a code of conduct as soon as possible to govern how public officials interact with the tobacco industry.
“The creation and the enforcement of the code of conduct have been long overdue since the implementation of the tobacco control laws and regulations in 2012 and 2016, respectively. It will help avoid some needless interactions between government representatives and the tobacco business,” it stated.
The report made a number of recommendations to the government which include the ban on all tobacco-related corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and that the tobacco industry should be directed to publicly report or declare its CSR initiatives in the country; “This information is not currently available in the public domain.”
The government must demand full disclosure on the website of the industry activities to include their market shares, revenue, and profits, tax exemptions, or any privileges it receives.
“Similarly, government officials should be mandated to publicly share information on their dealings with the industry on platforms like their websites.”
The government should require the Ministry of Finance to examine tobacco product prices on a regular basis and to successfully control the cost and access of the products.
The report called on the media to augment the activities of CSOs, especially VALD-Ghana by putting the spotlight on the actions of the tobacco industry to expose their interferences and the overall harm of tobacco use by the population.
“Periodically, the media capacity should be built to ensure that they demand of the governments a holistic implementation of the Framework Convention of Tobacco Control guidelines (FCTC) and the enforcement of local legislation like tax increment among others that target tobacco control,” it stated.
It said beyond the awareness campaign on the health implications of smoking, the government should develop a campaign plan for government officials, decision-makers/policymakers, and political actors on Article 5.3 FCTC to enhance their skills and knowledge.
“This will help them to avoid conflict of interest and protect them against falling prey to the activities of the tobacco industry o inadvertently facilitating their activities to undermine the policies of the control of the products in the country,” it stated.
The report appealed to the government to take a further step to terminate the recently suspended track and trace system contract between De La Rue and the Ghana Revenue Authority and open a fresh application process that should be independent, transparent, and devoid of tobacco industry involvement to effectively address illicit trade in tobacco product in the country.
“We recommend periodic and extensive in-depth research to counter the industry and allies’ misinformation on emerging products like e-cigarettes as a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes.
“The tobacco industry must be prevented from promoting these products as safer alternatives. Currently, the negative effects of these emerging products are alarming,” it stated.
The report called on the Ministry of Health to officially write to heads of all educational institutions to take cognizance of the tobacco control law and the regulations and to desist from engaging the tobacco industry.
GNA