A joint task force by the Police and officials from the Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) has closed down the Las Palmas Food Centre, a local restaurant in Accra for operating without a GTB license.

Mr. Owusu Mensah, Director of Operations GTB, said the exercise was meant to enforce the Legislative Instruments, (LI) 1205, which mandated all operators in the hospitality sector to be certified by the GTB before operating.

Mr. Mensah said under the LI, all operators were expected to register and receive approval from the GTB for a year and that those deemed unsatisfactory were given six months to ensure that they kept to the standards required.

He said his outfit embarked on a sensitisation exercise in February this year, to educate operators in the hospitality industry on the need to get approval from the GTB and that even those with licenses were required to display them on their premises.

Mr. Mensah said efforts by the GTB to ensure all operators register with it had failed adding, "We have no choice than to enforce the law".

Ms Roberta Mprah, Quality Assurance Officer, GTB, said she led her officers to the premise of Las Palmas to inform the proprietress on the need to comply with the directives which required that sanitary conditions were improved.

Ms. Mprah said her officers were met with stiff opposition from the proprietress adding, “She told us that, she did not require any licence from the GTB to operate".

Ms. Mprah said her outfit would embarked on an intensive exercise to ensure that all unregistered operators were dealt with according to the law and called on those who had not yet registered to do so.

Source: GNA