EXAMINER’S GENERAL COMMENTS This examination was based on a pre-seen scenario which described GHANA GOLDEN ONYX HOTEL (GGOH), which provides the following services: Room, Bar, Restaurant, Conferences and Meetings, Fitness Centre, Health Spa, Business Centre and Other Services. GGOH primary activity is services. The scenario was made available in advance of the exam. This is a very interesting industry and candidates are expected to be familiar as part of preparation toward the examination. The preseen was detailed and well-prepared candidates should have been able to give good answers in the context of the industry. The unseen scenarios were interesting and presented some realistic questions on the industry. The standard of the paper was extremely good, and the questions were clear with preambles to assist candidates. The coverage was broad, but the paper was heavy on the strategy with only two questions worth 15 marks in the financial management. All the questions were based on the recommended syllabus and study material of the Institute. The standard of the paper also shows remarkable improvement over the previous two exams diets since the Institute of Chartered Accountant Ghana introduced the Case Study in November 2019. Marks allocation followed the weightings in the syllabus and was fairly distributed to each sub-question.

PERFORMANCE OF CANDIDATES Few candidates marginally performed well, but many appeared to be ill-prepared for this examination and did not demonstrate the required level of technical knowledge and application of knowledge to the case study. Overall, candidates performed well below average. There were a number of concerns relating to student performance in several other areas, this applies to all questions. In many cases candidates quoted and described models but did not apply them to the case study, this approach does not achieve marks. All answers must be applied to the case study and should bring inPage 2 of 26 aspects of the pre-seen information as well as the information and appendix (exhibits) in the unseen material. Answers which are purely rote learning were quite common in some requirements and this approach is awarded very low marks. There were also a number of candidates who gave very theoretical answers and did not apply them to the case study. Many candidate answers lacked depth of development and therefore, although demonstrating a basic understanding and application of knowledge, they failed to accumulate sufficient marks due to not developing their answers sufficiently. Some answers were just short and incomplete.