Ghana@50: The People Demand Accountability

The Chief Executive of the Ghana@50 Secretariat, Dr. Charles Yves Wereko-Brobby, last Saturday took the Minister for Public Sector Reforms, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom to task, for daring to ask that the Secretariat account for the amount allocated to it, following concerns raised by members of the public that with less than three weeks to the actual Independence Day Anniversary, nothing much has been seen by way of physical evidence of projects relating to the anniversary celebrations.

Speaking on Joy FM’s weekly news review programme, Newsfile, Dr. Wereko-Brobby questioned the motives of the Public Sector Reforms minister, pointing out that funds approved by Parliament for all sectors had laid down processes for accounting; hence concluding that Dr. Nduom was being populist for making that demand.

But the Ghana@50 celebration boss did not end there. As if to suggest the Minister was a sworn enemy of his, Dr. Wereko-Brobby pointed out that the same Dr. Nduom had accused him of causing financial loss to the state, with respect to the Strategic Reserve Plant (SRP), acquired by the former when he was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Volta River Authority (VRA) with the latter as sector minister.

Dr. Wereko-Brobby, however indicated that the brouhaha that arose following that accusation led to his subsequent resignation from the VRA, even though the minister subsequently retracted the accusation.

Again, that was not the end of the discussion for the Ghana @ 50 boss, as he directly accused his former boss of being the cause of the current energy crisis the country is experiencing.

The Chronicle finds the reaction of the Ghana@50 boss to the concerns raised by the Public Sector Reforms Minister as very unfortunate.

This is because even though there are laid down processes for rendering accounts to the public on the appropriation of allocated funds, the peculiar nature of the allocation to the Secretariat makes it necessary that accounts are rendered as promptly as possible even as we go along.

Here, we are discussing a $20 million allocation for a celebration not covered by any details that would make for easy verification. Secondly, corporate institutions are making fat donations in cash as well as other sponsorship packages and members of the public have been asking questions about what exactly is going on here.

Again, it is obvious that looking at the lack of foresight that has characterised the planning, there would be a short-circuiting of the Public Procurement Act requirements that would have ensured greater accountability.

Clearly, there is greater potential for abuse here than in normal situations where there is a budget covering allocated funds.

So, if a Minister of State, who is also a representative of the people, requests for accountability through the appropriate forum, Parliament, and Dr. Wereko-Brobby has answers, why should that pose a headache for him?

Dr. Wereko-Brobby, in reacting to the demands, cites media coverage of donations to the Secretariat as a mark of transparency.

Unfortunately, he fails to realise that members of the public seeing so much being donated to the Secretariat, without enough on the ground to show are more curious than he thinks.

The Chronicle joins the Public Sector Reform Minister in demanding transparency and accountability, not just in receipts by the Ghana@50 Secretariat but more importantly, how they are expending the taxpayers’ money.

As for the issue of whether the Dr. Wereko-Brobby-headed VRA caused financial loss to the state in the handling of the SRP project or not, time will tell.