Mr John Tia Akologu, Minister of Information, on Tuesday urged Ghanaians living in and around Accra to visit the Ghana Policy Fair to interact with various Ministries, Department and Agencies about the policies, programmes and services that they provided.
The Fair, an exhibition of policies projects and activities of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and
District Assemblies (MMDAs) is under the theme "Engaging the Citizenry for a Better Ghana".
Mr Akologu said the Government wanted to get closer to the people and to involve them in issues of governance saying, "Government welcomes
suggestions from the public".
The Information Minister, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency at the Accra International Conference Centre, venue of the Fair, organized by the Ministry of Information, said the Government wanted to create public
awareness about its policies, programmes and activities.
He said the programme would be extended to the other regions to enable Ghanaians, who were not in the capital city and its environs, to get access to such information and to understand Government policies.
He also encouraged individual Ministries, Department and Agencies to mount organisational exhibitions to give the general public information about their activities.
The Minister further urged Ghanaians to be bold and courageous to approach the Public Relations Outfit of any MDA or MDDA to enquire about policies and programmes that they did not understand.
More than 100 Ministries, Department and Agencies are exhibiting their policies, programmes and activities and explaining to visitors what their organisations are doing to facilitate the "Better Ghana Policy" of the
Government
Ghana News Agency (GNA), supplier of news to more than 100 Media outlets and organizations is also showcasing its products and services.
Senior staff members, attired in the Agency's colours, were on hand at its stand also decorated in the same colours, to tell visitors the "GNA Story".
On display are copies of important news items that helped to "rescue" Ghana after Election 2008, when many people thought the country was at the brink of a major political upheaval.
GNA is Ghana's only wire service and as the parent news medium, supplies accurate news stories to all the other media houses nationwide in addition to some Ministries, Departments, educational institutions and the foreign missions in Ghana.
The Ministry of Tourism organized a cultural dance troupe to showcase the rich Ghanaian dance and culture. It is displaying beds and other tourists' attractions in the country.
The Ministry of Education also has a stand where all Government's educational programmes including the one laptop per child project are being showcased. Samples of the laptop are on display.
Ms Annie Anipa, Assistant Commissioner and Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Revenue Authority, one of the Agencies that exhibited their services, said the Authority had become the main revenue agency for the Government.
The Ghana Revenue Agency consists of the Custom, Excise and Preventive Service, Internal Revenue Agency and any other tax collecting agency in the country.
Ms Anipa said "Ghana has a Revenue Authority that aims at improving efficiency in tax collection," and announced that the Authority intended to modernize the tax collecting process and to explain to Ghanaians the importance and benefits of paying taxes.
Ms Anipa said the Revenue Authority would soon embark on an outreach programme to make revenue collection and payment easy and said the taxpayer would be treated as a customer or client and provided with excellent client services.
"We are also going to set up Customer Service Centres to give access to Ghanaians, who do not understand issues about tax payment to ask
questions."
The public, mostly workers went round the various stands interacting with officers and feeding their eyes on the variety of items on show at the stands.