Mr Henry Acquah, Deputy Commissioner, Financing and Corporate Planning of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), has called on Collection Officers to be up and doing to be able to meet the onerous tasks and challenges of the service. He said, "The only way to be in full control was for them to sharpen their technical, managerial and supervisory skills and roles" at all levels of their work. Mr Acquah was opening a two-day sensitisation workshop on CEPS' five-year Strategic Corporate Plan for Collection Officers in Ashanti at Abuakwa in the Atwima-Nwabiagya district on Friday. He said the Strategic Plan calls for a careful and systematic coordination of efforts at all levels to attain the corporate goals, aspirations and the realization of a world-class service. The Deputy Commissioner said "as managers, we have no option but to show commitment, transparency and participatory decision making, especially at the collection level. "If we as managers who are entrusted to manage the affairs of CEPS do not begin to dialogue and take criticisms to heart, things will continue to go wrong", he added. Mr Acquah stressed the need for them to think and act together to remedy the harmful effects of some of the operational inefficiencies on revenue performance and national security. He said management wanted to create a common platform for officers to accept the need to demonstrate superior qualities and therefore urged them to serve as role models for the subordinates to emulate. "Our actions must be non-discriminatory and transparent, if there is a moment in the history of CEPS when new management techniques are required, it is now", he said. He said there was the need for them to provide inspirational and dynamic leadership and create the opportunity for teamwork, mutual respect and effective communication at all levels. He reminded the collectors that no institution can succeed without the involvement and consent of those who are governed by it saying "our task as managers are to encourage, motivate, direct and cooperate with our subordinates in a manner that would yield desirable results". Mr Kow Amissah-Koomson, Kumasi Sector Commander of CEPS, noted that the workshop re-affirms management's commitment to the total organisational building of the service. Source: GNA