No Ghana card, no service-Lands Commission upgrades fraud fight

By Selorm GBORBIDZI, Accra
The Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Benjamin Arthur, has indicated that the Commission will soon refuse its services to persons who do not have the Ghana card.
This is part of the Commission’s strategic moves to curtail the activities of middlemen and prevent land fraud.
The Commission is working closely with the National Identification Authority (NIA) to eliminate undesirable “middlemen” in the land registration space using the GhanaCard for verification of grantors and grantees.
Collaborating with the NIA in the verification process would assist in ensuring that the Commission dealt and communicated directly with the grantors and grantees on record at any given time, and not only their “agents” or “middlemen”.
That would enable the Commission to send text messages and prompts in respect of the progress of applications directly to the grantees.
Speaking at the Executive Secretary’s Annual Briefing and launch of Staff Awards, Mr. Arthur outlined a raft of measures the Commission intends to implement in its drive to improve its services to the general public.
He revealed that steps are being taken to eliminate fraud in the land registration process.
He said, “In collaboration with the National Identification Authority (NIA), the Commission will be introducing and enforcing the verification of identities of Grantors and Grantees through the use of the Ghana Card. We may well get to the point of ‘No Ghana Card, No Registration.’”
He added that this is to “ensure that the Commission will be dealing and communicating directly with the Grantees on Record at any point in time, and not only their ‘agents’ or middlemen.”
Surveyor Arthur stated that a lot of progress has been made in efforts to improve the process of registering Title.
He noted that additional features introduced in the plan approval process will make it possible for the publication of title registration applications to be undertaken early, upon receipt of such applications.
This, he believes, will reduce the title processing period by not less than 14 to 21 days.
The Acting Executive Secretary further revealed that The Lands Commission, in collaboration with the Licensed Surveyors Association of Ghana (LISAG), is working towards developing a fully digital system in the submission, processing, and approval of cadastral plans for registration and other purposes.
According to him, by the end of the first quarter of this year, an online portal for the submission of plans for approval will be rolled out.
This will make it mandatory for all licensed Surveyors to interact with the Commission through the online portal.
This is to ensure that the Commission deals only with qualified and certified Licensed Surveyors and holds them accountable.
Furthermore, it will introduce more security features on its barcoded cadastral plans and significantly improve the turnaround time for plan approval.
This should see the processing time reduce to a maximum of one week.
He also revealed that the Commission plans to set up satellite offices in selected regions to ensure that there is more decentralization in the land registration process.
In view of this, the Commission will pilot this new phase by establishing district offices in Tema.
When completed, this office will be fully resourced and equipped to provide full land services for Tema and its environs.
This will ensure that the Commission’s clients within the catchment area of Tema, Dorwenya, Prampram, among others, will no longer have to travel to the Cantonments Head Office for Plan Approval, Stamping, and Registration services, he said.
Mr Arthur revealed that The Commission also intends to partner with the private sector to set up satellite offices in selected areas to serve as Client Service Access Units (CSAUs).
“This will be piloted this year at Frafraha in the greater Accra region,” he averred.
He announced that Lands Commission will soon launch an outreach programme, dubbed: “You Deserve to Know”, to educate the public on several aspects of its operations and activities.
The campaign, would focus on creating public awareness on the Commission’s mandate, service delivery and specific processes in delivering those services, the fees chargeable for the services, digital reform platforms, among others.
That is expected to enhance the corporate image of the Commission, build public trust, and confidence in its operations.
“In Ghana, workers of the Lands Commission are perceived as taking the biggest bribes and other media reports on the performance of the Commission often focused on our shortcomings whilst little is reported on the efforts and good works of the Commission.”
“The very hard works of most staff of the Commission are drowned by the wrongs of the few. Most people are not well informed about our operations and the role of the Commission in the land space, ” Mr Arthur said.
The outreach campaign is, therefore, intended to correct the misconceptions the public have about the Commission and create a positive corporate image going forward.
However, Mr Arthur was quick to explain that its corporate image redemption drive could only succeed if it was associated with improvements in its services to the public.
He, thus, called for teamwork among the staff and management to complement one another.
The Commission would open its new Headquarters office located at 37 in April, this year, to enhance service delivery.
The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu-Bio, revealed that the Ministry is expecting the Commission to focus on three key areas this year to improve its output.
These are the digital transformation of the Commission, the completion and commissioning of the new head office building in Accra, and the improvement of the image of the Lands Commission.
He commended the Commission for the work already done to improve its public image, but he urged them to do more to ensure success.