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Ghana@50 probe: I use my personal fortune-Wereko Brobby
Audrey Micah, Ghanadot
Accra, Oct 14, Ghanadot - Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, Chief
Executive Officer of the defunct Ghana@50 Secretariat, yesterday
had his day with the commission probing the activities of the
secretariat and made it official that he had used his personal
fortune of GH¢200,000 (¢2 Billion) to pre-finance aspects of the
Golden Jubilee celebration.
According to him, contrary to public perception, the country
raked in about GH¢36 million profit from the Ghana@50
celebration and the African Union (AU) Summit, concluding that
the jubilee celebration had been a huge success for which the
government and the people of Ghana needed to commend him and his
staff for a good job done.
He told the commission that apart from his personal money, he
also raised an overdraft from Prudential Bank which was expended
on projects and explained that he had to take those steps
because of the delay in the release of money for the
celebration.
At the end, he said, it took him several months to reclaim his
money which was paid to him without interest.
Dr. Wereko-Brobby said the National Planning Committee (NPC),
which was assisted by the Ghana@50 Secretariat to execute the
programmes for the celebration, approved a budget of $75 million
for it.
He said although there had been an approved budget for
the celebration, the government did not provide any money at the
beginning of the operations of the secretariat's business to execute the programmes and plans for the celebration.
He revealed that the first tranche of the approved money was
released in November 2006, while the second was in January 2007.
He said his outfit spent less than 60 per cent of the budget
approved by the NPC but chalked up successes in the
implementation of almost all the programmes outlined for the
celebration, adding that African Heads of State who had attended
the AU Summit had been full of praise for its organisation.
To him, the model and concept behind the AU Village was admired
by the Heads of State, four of whom he said had since made
approaches to replicate the model.
Dr Wereko-Brobby had been
subpoena by the commission to help find out where he had got the
money for the celebration, the amount expended and how it was
utilized.
He explained that the idea of the celebration was to
enable everybody in the country to experience and have a feel of
it for the sake of posterity.
Explaining further, he said the budget had been mentioned in
Parliament by the late former Minister of Finance and Economic
Planning, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, during which he said the
secretariat, was to spend a minimum of $20 million.
He said some people, particularly the media, took the statement
out of context by ommitting the word “minimum” to make an issue
out of the expenditure of the secretariat and lto create the
impression that he had exceeded the budget or misapplied the
money.
According to him, the delay in the release of the money for the
celebration was likely to cause the country an embarrassment so
he devised strategies to avert that. He said it was at that
instance that he decided to use his own money and raise more
from the bank to discharge the work given to him.
He said one of the strategies was to first and foremost start
the projects by using his own money to the tune of GH¢200,000
and later raise the rest from Prudential Bank.
Ghanadot
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