Policy group IMANI Ghana is raising red flags about the conduct of the 2010 population and housing census. It is questioning claims by the Ghana Statistical Service that it achieved ninety percent coverage. The think tank is embarking on a campaign dubbed “Count Me” to gather information on the number of Ghanaians who were not captured. Policy Researcher at IMANI, Bright Simons, says the group hopes to confront the Statistical Service with the evidence. He said there was clear evidence that the Service did not follow best practices in conducting the census citing lack of decentralization, lack of use of technologies amongst others. “We are not convinced that the Statistical Service has demonstrated clearly that it has the ability to estimate and therefore to collect the socio-economic and demographic data needed for policy making. If you say you’ve [captured] 90 per cent of [the population], that means you have a good estimate of what the total population was even before the [census]” something that is practically and statistically impossible, Mr Simon said. IMANI Ghana is also asking the National Media Commission to investigate why Ghana Television allegedly charges a fee of more than a thousand dollars to provide coverage for some events of public interest. Mr Simons said the state broadcaster demanded from organizations a justification that their events or programmes are of public interest before providing coverage – something he believes amounts to GBC “falling short of its public interest broadcasting mandate.” Source: Joy News/Ghana