Over 40 hoteliers have threatened to sue the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), for failing to pay their monies after hosting visitors who arrived in Accra to participate in the 13th All-African Games.
The hoteliers say that despite the Ministry of Youth and Sports paying them just 20 percent of the amount promised, persistent efforts to get the Ministry to pay the rest have proved futile.
Over 13,000 participants, consisting of 5,000 athletes, 3,000 technical officials, 3,000 volunteers, and 2,000 guests from 54 African countries, took part in the 13th all-African Games this year.
Many of these guests were hosted in hotels located in the capital, Accra.
The LOC led the Ministry of Youth and sports to negotiate for the rates prior to the games.
The hoteliers numbering over 40 say the Ministry subsequently paid just 20 percent upfront, with the agreement that the remaining 80 percent would be paid immediately after the games ended.
The games ended on March 23, but the Ministry has still not settled its debt.
One hotelier said his 40 rooms were all booked by the LOC for the three-week period.
They have threatened to sue both entities should they fail to pay them.
Another hotelier who spoke to 3news said that “We fed them 21 days and 21 nights that’s for the 3-weeks that they stayed. Some of us have 30 rooms, others have 40 rooms and they booked all.
They promised us that they will pay the balance before the visitors leave but they did not. On the last day we even wanted to lock them but we thought about the bad image we’ll subject the country Ghana into”. A distressed hotelier narrated.
Another hotelier (name withheld) said “we are disappointed at the turn of events. We have been to the ministries and the LOC several times and the accountant keeps giving us excuses that they are doing auditing. For how long are they going to do the auditing when we have clients to settle? We credited the food items to feed them, the toiletries etc. We credit a lot of them items, so the suppliers are also after their monies”.
“We are prepared to sue both the Ministry and the LOC, so we can unlock our monies”.
When contacted, the LOC confirmed leading the Ministry to negotiate for the rates,but directed this reporter to the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
However, an official at the Ministry said that, in due course, they will issue a statement to clarify the matter.
