Hagan calls for review of museums and monuments law
Accra (Greater Accra) 04 February 2002 - Professor George Hagan, Chairman of the National Commission on Culture, on Monday called for a review of the law that established the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB), describing it as obsolete and out of tune with modern trends.
He noted that the GMMB Law, NLCD 389 (1969) and a subsequent legislative instrument promulgated in 1973 for the same purpose, "have for obvious reasons become obsolete and out of tune with modern trends in museums and monuments management.
"It is important for Parliament to expedite action on the passage of a reviewed version of that law if the museums and monuments sector is to be more effective and relevant to national development," he said, when he inaugurated a 12-member GMMB Board headed by Nana Kwabena Nketiah V, Omanhene of Essikadu Traditional area in the Western region.
He noted that the obsolete nature of the GMMB Law attested to the negligent attitude of previous governments towards museums and monuments management, adding that since 1992 there had not been any government budgetary allocation for rehabilitation and repairs at GMMB.
This, he said, had resulted in GMMB's inability to retain adequate professional staff. It also made it impossible for the Board to complete the National Science Museums "which has become a national embarrassment".
"At the moment, out of a staff strength of 374 in all regional offices, only 30 are mainline professionals, including curators, architects, artists, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and ethnographers. Seventy-six are middle level or auxiliary professionals and the remaining 268 are junior staff."
Prof. Hagan described the staff situation as "not good enough" for a specialised research institution and charged the new Board to develop short, medium and long-term training programmes for the staff to ensure progress.
He said proposals had been made for the restructuring of the GMMB to make it more effective, saying that under the proposed restructured Board, it had been suggested that the GMMB be divided into a Museums Service and a Monuments Service to be manned by two separate committees under the supervision of a common Director-General.
Prof. Hagan charged the new Board to discuss the proposals and make recommendations for further action. He also urged the Board to learn from the experience of the recent past, saying that the old Board put forward a medium-term corporate plan, which would be of benefit to the development of the service.
Nana Nketiah noted that the current state of the GMMB called for a moment of silence and reflection, saying that this created the impression that Ghana had no history.
"The GMMB is more HIPC than the country itself," he joked, and pledged the commitment of the Board to boost the image of museums and monuments to ensure its relevance to national development.
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