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Members of the Western Regional of the Ghana Union of Professional Photographers (GUPP) have called on the government to as a matter of necessity involve them in public and national photographic exercise in the country. According to the members, government contracts such as taking of photographs for National Identity Cards and National Health Insurance Scheme, pictures of students for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West Africa Senior Certificate Examination (WASSCE) as well as photographs for �voters� identity cards should be awarded to the professional photographers. They maintained that awarding the aforementioned contract to members of GUPP would not only increase business opportunities, but would also help increase the net profits for members of the union. The photographers made the demand at a stakeholders meeting by the members of the union which was attended by representatives of the Electoral Commission (EC), Ghana Education Service (GES) and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). The meeting was sponsored by the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund. Mr. Bartholomew Kofi Ofori, the Regional Chairman of the union indicated that factors that prevented professional photographers from public contracts included the complex nature of tender documents high cost of bidding among others. He therefore called for transparency in the tendering and bidding process in the award of public and government photographic contracts. �When this is done it can lead to expansion of the businesses of member to facilitate the creation of jobs for the youth,� he added. Reacting to the concerns raised by the photographers, Charles Antwi, THE Scheme Manager of the NHIS in Sekondi noted that nothing prevented the members of GUPP to bid for the Photographic contract of the scheme. He, however, pointed out that the photographers needed only to lobby from the NHIS office in Accra since scheme managers at the local levels did not have the power to award such contracts. �We promise that the moment the Accra headquarters give the green light that we should allow GUPP member to take photographs for our ID cards we will definitely adhere to the instruction,� he noted. He stressed that the photographers should also be prepared to either pre-finance some of the contracts or be in the position to do some of the jobs free of charge if they want to be acknowledged by the various government institutions. Mr. Bano Bioh and Ebenezer Dooso of the EC and the GES respectively, also shared similar concern.