The Committee was particularly worried that a website that supposedly in the name of a public entity like the GNA was under the control of a private individual in spite of the directive that all websites of Government agencies should be hosted by the National Information Technology Agency (NITA)

According to a report of the Committee on the 2017 Budget estimates for the Ministry of Information, the Agency’s inability to pay for the services of the website engineer resulted in an agreement that the engineer managed the website and used the proceeds for the adverts thereof to offset the cost of his services.

For the financial year of 2017, the Government of Ghana has allocated an amount of GHC 141, 078, 702 to o the Ministry of Information, under which GNA, Information Services Department, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Ghana Publishing Company Limited, Graphic Communications Group Company Limited (GCGCL) and New Times Corporation are responsible for the implementation the policies and progammes of the Ministry.

Established in March 1957, the GNA is responsible for the collection, processing and disseminating truthful and unbiased information and news both internally and externally.

Over the years, the GNA has kept its track record as a source of credible news and stories in Ghana.

The report announced that the Agency, despite resource and logistics constraints had improved in the quality of work with the development of the GNA Journalism and Multimedia Training Centre, and strengthened the GNA Advertiser to improve advertising from the private sector with special emphasis on cash based adverts from the public sector institutions.

The report stated further that it has improved ties with international news agencies in exploring further collaborations and built management capacity with management oriented training programmes.

Officials from the Agency told the Committee that despite its challenges, the GNA still remained relevant within the modern information system because it served as an important vehicle for gathering stories, which may ordinarily not have commercial appeal to private media stations.

The GNA, as an official news agency of the government has credibility as one of its trademarks within and outside the country.

“This puts GNA in a very strategic position to become more viable and competitive if it is able to position itself to meet the demands of modern news reporting which employed innovation and technology to present stories with pictures, videos and sound bites among others, the report said.