Wereko-Brobby did a good job - Laryea tells probe

Chief Executive Officer of the Secretariat, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobbey The Managing Director of the MMRS OGILVY, Mr Reginald Laryea, Tuesday told the Presidential Commission probing the activities of the Ghana@50 Secretariat that the Chief Executive Officer of the Secretariat, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobbey, did a good job in respect of the golden jubilee celebration of the country. He said Dr Wereko-Brobbey worked under stress because he lacked the requisite funds for the organisation of the anniversary. Making his submission to the commission on his company's involvement in Ghana @ 50 celebrations, Mr Laryea said his company was given a contract totalling GH¢ 136, 184.4l out of which GH¢98,705,91 was paid to them. Mr Laryea said there was an outstanding balance of GH¢37,478.50 which the secretariat had to pay to his company. He said ideally they should be requesting for interest on overdue outstanding (approximately GH¢35,000 over the period) but as a goodwill measure they were willing to waive that provided payment would be made within a month. He said their involvement originated from an advert in the Ghanaian Times newspaper of May 22, 2006 inviting interested companies to submit samples of logo to be used for the Ghana @ 50 celebration. Mr Laryea said based on their submission, the company's logo sample was selected by the Ghana @ 50 Secretariat He said in response, his company sent an "expression of interest" to the secretariat on June 28, 2006. He said they were appointed as design consultants on July 26, 2006 for the production of Golden Jubilee calendar, diary, handbook and the guidebook for the golden jubilee celebra-tion. He said MMRS Ogilvy Was tasked to use its extensive global .reach and network to assist with the organisation, publicity and marketing of the international dimensions of the celebrations, especially the celebrations by the Ghanaian communities and diplomatic missions abroad. Mr Laryea said they were excited about the appointment and immediately set out to work only to realise that funding was a big challenge. He said they were, therefore, left with no alternative but to concentrate on the local aspects. He said between July 26, 2006 when they were appointed till November 2006 there was a great problem with raising sponsorship by the Ghana@50 Secretariat and were, therefore, tasked by the secretariat to implement their strategic proposal to tackle the situation. Mr Laryea said that involved some research, event planning, selection and short listing of managing directors of various companies, telephone/follow up calls and organising a presidential sponsorship night. Other activities included design and printing of invitations, pledge forms and co-ordination of various activities to create the right ambience for corporate and individual citizens to contribute freely to the celebration. He said their strategy worked to the letter and the donations started flowing in. Counsel for Dr Wereko-Brobbey corroborated the claim made by Mr Laryea, and said all the figures he mentioned tallied with what were in the records of the Ghana @ 50 Secretariat. Also making a submission at the Commission sitting Tuesday the Managing Director of Aultratech, Mr Emmanuel Noye, said the Ghana @ 50 Secretariat gave him a contract to undertake some carpentry works at the AU village. He said the total contract sum was GH¢128,874 and that there was an outstanding balance of GH¢40,261 to be paid to the company. Mr Akoto Ampaw challenged the figures and said they were inconsistent with the records of the Ghana @ 50 Secretariat. The Director of Design Atelier, Miss Josephine Manalo, who presented claims of her company was asked by the Chairman of the Commission to support the claims with relevant documents to enable the commission to verify them. She therefore promised to do that in due time. For his part, the Managing Director of Top International Engineering, Mr Duan Dezhi, said he was given a contract by the Ghana @ 50 Secretariat to undertake construction works at the VVIP lounge of the Kotoka International Airport. He said his company had an outstanding balance of GH¢441,184.20 to claim and appealed to the Commission to help his company to do that. He said some of the company's suppliers had dragged the management to court while others had also threatened to do that. WAS Foods Company Limited could not turn up at the commission to make its presentation. Source: Daily Graphic