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Ghana Meteorological Agency Act Amended! - Staff hail Ursula

Parliament on Friday, 2nd August, 2019 passed the Ghana Meteorological Agency amendment bill 2019 which seeks to define and specify the fees and charges the Ghana Meteorological Agency can recover for Aeronautical services provided to the Aviation industry.

The Ghana Meteorological Agency is a state institution established under the Ghana Meteorological Agency Act, Act 682, 2004 to provide climate and weather information to ensure the socio-economic development of the country.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO), in line with the Chicago Convention of 1944 which Ghana ratified on 9th March 1957 enjoins the Ghana Meteorological Agency to provide Aeronautical services to the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority to ensure the safety of Ghana's Airspace.

In fulfillment of this obligation, the Ghana Meteorological Agency, among other things, provides aerodrome forecast, aerodrome warning, METAR, TAFS, SIGMET, en-route forecast, Air winds on daily basis at half hourly intervals to a total of about twenty three (23) international and local airlines that commute Ghana's Airspace.

This service is very important so as to ensure the safety of flights and passengers who either use Ghana’s airports or airspace on daily basis. Th Ghana Civil Aviation Authority collects the fees and charges relative to these services.

However, GMet has had a huge difficulty recovering cost for the services provided to the Aviation Industry despite a Memorandum of Understanding signed between GMet on one side and GCAA and GACL on another side in 2009. The inability of GCAA and GACL to honour their contractual obligations by paying monies owed GMET gravely affected the operations of this vital state institution.

It is in this regard that government, after an extensive consultation process with all stakeholders including GCAA, GACL, Ministry of Aviation, Ministry of Finance and the Attorney-General intiated processes, through the Ministry of Communications, to amend GMet's act.

By the amendment, GMet will receive 5% of Airport tax collected by the GRA and 10% of both landing and en-route charges collected by the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority.

This move by government has been commended by non-governmental organizations like the Climate Watch Ghana who have openly come out to commend the government.

GMet has recently received ISO 9001:2015 certificate by the Certification Group of UK in respect of the services the Agency renders especially in the area of Aeronautical Meteorology. This certification is regarded by industry players as testimony of the recent proactiveness of the Agency in terms of services provided to its stakeholders, including the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority and the Ghana Airport Company. 

The Agency is currently in the process of implementing a national framework for climate services in Ghana and it is considered that this action by government by government will give them the needed resources to ensure the successful rollout of Ghana's Framework for Climate Services.

Some staff who could not hide their joy commended the Honourable minister for personally taking this issue up and following it up to this point.

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