Tourism Ministry signs performance contract with Civil service

Mr Abdulai Yakubu, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has signed a performance agreement contract with the office of the Civil Service to ensure the Ministry lived up to its bidding.

A statement from the Ministry to the Ghana News Agency disclosed that the contract was signed at a brief ceremony held in Accra by the Ministry and representatives from the Civil Service led by Nana Agyekum Dwamena, the Head of the Service.

According to the statement, Nana Dwamena said the main aim of the contract was to see to the direction upon which the Ministry would be charting, to significantly improve on the Tourism Sector to promote socio-economic development.

He explained that a performance signed with the Chief Director of the Ministry would also ensure that the Tourism Ministry lived up to its bidding in delivering the core mandate of the Ministry.

Nana Dwamena according to the statement indicated that the Civil Service had created a system to monitor and evaluate the performance management of the government ministries to help in the execution of the government’s policies and programmes.

He said, the move was prompted by an observation made by the Monitoring and Evaluation Ministry established to give meanings to the performances and working of the various ministries for efficient service delivery.

Mrs Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, the Minister of the Sector according to the statement, said the performance agreement contract was a critical component in the delivery of the sector’s wide performance.

She said the “Year of Return” and other flagship programmes spearheaded by the Ministry and expected to come off this year would be effectively implemented if staff were able to deliver on their target objectives.

Mrs Oteng-Gyasi said the sector was currently the fourth foreign exchange earner in the country after Cocoa, Gold, Oil and Gas, and all quest should be made by staff of the Ministry and Agencies under it to move beyond the fourth income earner to third place or higher.

According to the statement, Dr Ziblim Iddi Barry, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture said the contract was an initiative to help government discharge its duties effectively and therefore, called on all and sundry to help government to roll out its policy intervention to the citizens.

He gave the assurance of his unwavering commitment to support the Minister to achieve her goal, the statement said.