The tourism industry no doubt contributes substantially to the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of Ghana. According to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), the number of tourism visits from 2006 to 2011 had shown a steady increase with an average growth of 17%. From 497,129 international visitors in 2006, more than 1,000,000 people visited Ghana in 2011. By 2014, tourists’ visits had hit 1.2m whilst the sector recorded staggering $2.1 billion revenue to the state in addition to employing over 410,000 people.
The $2.1 billion revenue recorded in 2014 has confirmed the estimation made by World Economic Forum in 2012, which valued Ghana’s tourism sector at $2.102 billion that was about 5.2% of the GDP at the time.
The investment in the Travel & Tour subsector alone, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, hit GHȼ674.5m or 2.7% of total investment in 2014. The Council estimated a fall of 3.1% in 2015, and rise by 2.9% per annum over the next ten years to GHȼ870.3m in 2025.
Regrettably, the sector that lays the golden egg, which is the fourth largest exchange earner for the country, is least funded by the government. In the 2016 budget for instance, only a paltry sum of GH¢39million was allocated to the sector. As a result, the ministry is simply broke and cannot even afford to pay for the promotional exams of its staff. The hardest hit, The Chronicle understands, is the National Commission on Culture.
Credible information available to The Chronicle indicates that for close to four years now, no promotional exam has been organized due to lack of funds. As a result, there have been agitations among the workers who are close to retirement to force their management to organize their promotional exams.
This agitation from the workers, The Chronicle was told, has forced the Tourism Ministry and the National Commission on Culture to do the unthinkable – levying the workers to buy the needed logistics to organize the examination when that should have been the preserve of the government. In a letter dated February 5, 2016 and signed by Mr. William Boateng, Director in charge of planning, he directed the over hundred affected workers to contribute GHȼ100.00 each towards the promotional exams.
Mr. Boateng’s letter reads: “Government subventions for administrative activity expenses have not been forthcoming as expected for the medium term. The Commission is supposed to organize promotion interviews from Senior Cultural Officer to Principal Cultural through Deputy Director to Director. Since 2013, we have not been able to carry out that responsibility due to dwindling Government subventions.
Without precedent, it has never been the wish of the Commission to impose any levy or to solicit financial contributions from any of its agencies to conduct promotion interviews for staff.
A time has come to attempt to do things differently in order to help the organization and the entire staff to improve service delivery and efficiency at the workplace. Each Centre is supposed to contribute GH¢ 100.00 per candidate for the interviews to help offset the panel expenses and other associated logistics that would be required to conduct the interviews.
It is envisaged that if the financial contribution from each Centre gets to the NCC on time, then hopefully by the close of the first quarter of 2016 we would be done with the promotion interviews. We wish to count solely on your continuous cooperation and support. Thank you.”
Some of the workers who spoke to The Chronicle are however unhappy with the action that has been taken by their leaders, wondering why they have to pay for their own promotional exams when it is the mandate of the government to do so. The workers further told this reporter that in 2010, management of the Commission instructed the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) to arrest one of the directors for allegedly collecting GHȼ20.00 to organize similar promotional exam contending that the act amounted to bribery and corruption.
It is the contention of the workers that if those writing the exam are to pay GHȼ100.00, they would expect nothing but mass promotion. This, some of them noted, is unhealthy development. When contacted, Mr. William Boateng admitted that he wrote the letter and that he had the backing of six out of the ten directors to adopt the new method to raise funds for the exams.
Mr. Boateng also admitted that it was not right to levy the workers but pointed out that considering the fact that some of the workers are inching closer to retirement; but still on their grade because there is no funding for their promotional exam, that is the only action they could adopt to salvage the situation. He re-iterated that he had the full backing of his directors. He, however, told The Chronicle that he was yet to receive a pesewa from any worker based on the letter he has written.
Though some of the workers had alleged that their colleagues had paid the chunk of the money through Mobile Money Transfer to Mr. William Boateng; the latter denied the accusation insisting that nobody has given him money for the exam.
The National Commission on Culture was established in 1990 by Provisional National Defence Council Law 238 to manage from a holistic perspective, the Cultural life of the country. In the execution of the aforementioned, the National Commission on Culture is enjoined, among other things, to promote the evolution of an integrated National Culture, supervise the implementation of programmes for the preservation, promotion and representation of Ghana tradition and values; and perform such other functions as may be prescribed by government.
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