Nana Yaa Jantuah questions leak of GTA internal memo, calls for sanctions

Presidential Staffer Nana Yaa Jantuah has questioned the public disclosure of an internal memo concerning the working relationship between Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) Chief Executive Officer Maame Efua Houadjeto and her deputy, Abeiku Santana, insisting that the matter should have been resolved internally.

Jantuah said she was puzzled by the decision to write a memo to a superior simply to request a meeting, particularly when their offices were reportedly close to each other.

“I mean, writing a memo to your boss just because you want to see her, I didn’t really understand what was going on because this is an internal matter and your boss’s office is just a stone’s throw away,” she said in an interview on Joy News.

She urged the sector minister to intervene and bring the two officials together to address their differences and restore a cordial working relationship.

“It’s possible Abeiku is next to the boss’s office or something. So, we need to get into it seriously, and I believe the minister would do so and try and bring the two of them together,” she said.

However, Jantuah said her primary concern was how the internal communication found its way into the public domain, questioning the motive behind its disclosure.

“I do not think that is something that should even have come out like that. So I asked myself, who brought out the letter in the public domain? What does the person seek to achieve?” she asked.

She maintained that the unauthorised release of internal correspondence could violate public service ethics and called for sanctions against whoever was responsible.

“Whoever brought it out has to be sanctioned because within the code of ethics of the public service, information that is internal, if not authorised, should not be put out,” she said.

Responding to suggestions that a journalist might have intercepted the memo, Jantuah questioned how such a document could have been obtained without possible lapses in the institutions’ information security systems.

“How do you intercept it? Then it means that their systems are loose within the public service,” she said.

She further suggested that someone within the ministry or the GTA secretariat may have facilitated the release of the document, describing the possibility as troubling.

“Somebody within a certain secretariat should have given it to you between the ministry and the GTA, and that is something that is troublesome,” Jantuah added.