Damning findings have been made by the Auditor General against the Ghana@50 Secretariat, which managed state funds allocated for the national birthday celebration which was held in 2007. For instance, the Auditor General’s report, which was laid in Parliament on Thursday June 18, revealed that the National Planning Committee of the celebrations and the African Union Conference overshot their budget by a very huge margin.
Also, out of the 25 jubilee toilets scheduled to have been built as part of the golden jubilee celebrations only one has so far been completed. The projects have been abandoned at various stages of completion by the contractors, most of whom received over six hundred thousand new Ghana cedis as mobilization fee. One of the other major findings against the secretariat in the report is the fact that the Wereko Brobbey-led body overshot its budget by more than hundred per cent.
The total expenditure made by the secretariat stands above 70 million new Ghana cedis as against the 30 million dollars originally allocated for the celebrations. The report also faults the National Planning Committee for guaranteeing a loan of 10 million new Ghana cedis contracted by a consortium of banks without the prior parliamentary approval. The report said the funds were to have been used to complete the construction and furnishing of 30 AU Village houses at the La wireless area. But it says the committee failed to abide by the terms of the contract, as a result of which a 3.4 million cedi interest has accumulated against the defaulters.
The committee also entered into a bridge financing agreement with Prudential Bank to obtain 10 million Ghana cedis to supplement its cash flow. However the Auditor General said the action was illegal as the Secretariat did not seek prior parliamentary approval.
source: citifmonline
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