Management of Dynasty Restaurant to be prosecuted despite cleaning up kitchen, surroundings. (Oct 02, 2014)

The Dynasty Chinese Restaurant has cleared the mess in its kitchen and surroundings that resulted in the restaurant being closed down for operating in an unhygienic environment.

However, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has given strong indications that the management of the restaurant would be prosecuted for flouting its directive and operating when the restaurant was closed down.

The Director of Public Health of the AMA, Dr Simpson A. Boateng, told the Daily Graphic after inspection of progress of work at the restaurant that the management of the facility would not be left off the hook for breaching the closure notice.

The inspection was done by a team comprising personnel of the Ghana Tourism Authority and the AMA—the two institutions that are collaborating to ensure that the restaurant operates in a safe and hygienic environment.

“We want to send a strong signal to every organisation within the metropolis that we live with laws and if you flout these laws with impunity, the AMA would use the same law to deal with you. We asked that they do the right thing but they disregarded that,” Dr Boateng said.

The restaurant was shut down on September 25, 2014, during an unannounced visit when the AMA found that grease and soot had accumulated on the heat extractors in the kitchen and the walls were dirty, while a defective gas cylinder there had a stone on top of the regulator, probably to prevent leakage.

Most of the stoves were rusty and appeared to have outlived their usefulness. Cobwebs were all over, while a pungent smell hung around the place.

There was algae around the pipelines and the water tank, among other unhygienic conditions.
Transformed kitchen

But during yesterday’s inspection it was realised that the kitchen had been transformed. All the rusty stoves had been replaced.

The sooth and grease in the heat extractor had also been cleaned. Tiled sections of the kitchen had been washed and the remaining part painted.

The defective cylinder in the kitchen which had stone on it had also been removed. The cobwebs that filled the kitchen were gone together with the pungent smell that hung in there.

More work to be done
In spite of the huge makeover, the GTA insisted that the restaurant must improve its washroom for employees.

Currently, there are two toilets for 50 male and female employees of the restaurant.
The team also directed the management of the restaurant to provide lockers for the workers.

GTA, AMA react
The acting Executive Director of the GTA, Mr Charles Osei Bonsu, though said he was impressed with the improvement in the kitchen, warned that not until all the changes had been made, the facility would not be open, a position that was shared by Dr Boateng, who was happy with the changes in the kitchen and immediate environs of the restaurant.