A Safety Expert, Selorm Ameteywee has urged the government to publish the findings on the investigation reports involving the Maxam Ghana Company Limited at the center of the Appiatse explosion.
In an interview with Spice 91.9 FM, he said, publication of the investigation reports would ascertain whether Maxam complied with the safety regulations or not.
He described the 6 million United States dollar fine imposed on the explosive company as questionable because it seem not to address the challenges faced by the industry.
“If we really want to focus on addressing the challenges in Ghana as far as the safety legal regime is concerned then we should look at the investigation report, critically analyze it and understand where the failures came from.
If the failures came from the enforcement authority, then we should look at the penal actions that should address it,” he said.
Selorm, quizzed on government’s action towards addressing the failure from the enforcement authority as well as reviewing the law to make the law work?
Meanwhile, he touted that the reports would establish whose responsibility to rebuild the community from the ground zero.
He observed that a lot of industries do not have safety regulations which protect workers from hazard in the workplace.
He was of the view that the mining sector seem to be the focus of the government as other sectors like the construction, downstream, services are neglected.
“It’s very shocking, the focus is only on the Mining sector as if it’s the mining industry which really matters. This explosion is really devastating but we can justify that other industries like the construction have had lots of incidents and also about the downstream oil and gas, where there’s been explosions. We are only focusing on the mining sector, but we need to look at the bigger picture,” he stated.
Selorm however, admonished the government to have a single legal framework where there is one authority in charge of health and safety in the Ghana, where that authority would be enacted by an act of Parliament.
