The Minister for Tourism Arts and Culture Barbara Oteng Gyasi has debunked the rumours making the round that the ministry has fired the Chief Executive officer of Ghana Tourism Authority, Akwasi Agyeman over conflicting statements allowing operators in the hospitality industry to reopen their businesses.
This is just as Oteng Gyasi rendered an unreserved apology to the general public for the conflicting statements from the Ministry and the Ghana Tourism Authority.
According to myjoyonline.com, the green light was, however, subjected to “specified elevated hygiene protocols” as well as social distancing.
However, The Tourism Ministry issued another statement to nullify the circular released by the Tourism Authority.
Speaking to George Quaye on Showbiz A-Z on Joy FM, the Minister said: “Let me first apologise to the general public and especially, our operators that the miscommunication may have impacted.
“I had reports from some of the drinking bars claiming that, they had started stocking up to start operations before the second directive came.”
She added that “drinking bars cannot operate as long as the ban on those activities have been extended to the end of May.”
When asked why they could not get the Tourism Authority to correct the mistake instead of issuing a conflicting statement, she said “the Ministry could have done that but unfortunately, at the point in time, we could not reach the management of the Ghana Tourism Authority to do this.
“And in view of the existing confusion in the public domain, we thought that we would just step in and correct it. There is no harm, we are one entity.”
“There’s absolutely nothing to that effect. I think that it was a genuine mistake that was made,” she said.
Source: myjoyonline.com
