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¢51bn Spent On Plastic Cups For School ChildrenHe said the Common Fund Secretariat was to bear half of the cost because it considered that exercise very important in view of the objective behind Ghana’s Golden Jubilee celebration and the intention to enable schoolchildren to have a feel of the celebration. Making his submission on his second day at the Commission’s hearing, Dr Wereko-Brobby spoke on a wide range of issues in connection with the celebration, some of which touched on infrastructural development, sanitation and logistics. He said as the chief executor of the programmes of the National Planning Committee (NPC) for the celebration, the secretariat spent $500,000 on rent for African Heads of State who were housed at the Trasacco Valley in Accra during the celebration. He said although the Heads of State stayed for less than four days, the rent period covered a month. He said the government provided two sites for the construction of presidential houses at Cantonments and North Ridge. He explained that the idea was to construct the houses and use them as official residences for high-profile guests to the country, such as Heads of State, but the idea was changed later due to financial constraints. In view of the change of idea, Dr Wereko-Brobby said, the government decided to sell the houses at Cantonments and North Ridge. He said it succeeded in selling 15 of the houses for GH¢8.25 million, an amount which, he said, was more than the investment which was made on the projects. Dr Wereko-Brobby said later an AU Development Consortium was formed to partner the government to complete the rest of the houses and sell them. On sanitation, the CEO said the secretariat decided to construct toilets and 25 rest stops at vantage and selected areas throughout the country. He explained that that was because the country lacked decent places of convenience and that considering the number of visitors who were expected to throng the country, it was important to provide those facilities. On vehicles, Dr Wereko-Brobby said a number of companies were invited from the automobile industry to submit proposals for the supply of vehicles for consideration. At the end of the bidding process, he said, Mercedes Benz , BMW, Jaguar and Ezonda vehicles were chosen to be supplied for the celebration. He said those vehicles were used for transporting Heads of State who participated in the African Union (AU) Summit, the United Nation Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), CAN 2008 and the Jubilee celebration. He said in between the Jubilee celebration and the international conferences and meetings, the vehicles were hired out to public organisations. Dr Wereko-Brobby said after the celebration and the international conferences and meetings, the government decided to sell the vehicles and consequently an auction sale was advertised in the media, noting that among the companies that won the bid to purchase the vehicles were those which had supplied the vehicles to the secretariat. He said 167 out of the 300 vehicles were sold and the rest retained for government pool. Responding to questions posed by the Chairman of the commission, Mr Justice Isaac Duose, on an allegation made by a supplier of the jubilee cups that her intellectual property had been stolen by the secretariat and given to another company called Appointed Time which had competed to supply the cups but lost the bid, Dr Wereko-Brobby said the decision was taken by the NPC after a meeting it held to discuss the inability of the company to supply five million cups within the time frame. He said the woman who made the allegation did not have the intellectual right because the designs were property of the secretariat. He said the lady was invited and the decision of the NPC on the supply of cups communicated to her, but she never complained. He, therefore, expressed surprise at the complaint by the woman who could not even supply half of the number of cups she was subsequently asked to do on time. Dr Wereko-Brobby explained that the NPC took that decision because the company had very serious challenges in its delivery and that was evidenced by the late supply of the cups to the schoolchildren. Answering another question from a commission member on the terms of reference of Amalgamated Designs, Dr Wereko-Brobby said the company was only to produce a design brief. He said there was no justification in the claims that the company produced designs and needed to be paid for them. The CEO said nevertheless the secretariat and the company arrived at a settlement at a meeting and promised to supply the commission with the basis of the settlement and evidence to the effect. He said everything owed Amalgamated Designs had been paid, although the company had walked out on the job. He also denied that he had sacked and re-engaged the services of an architect, Mr Kamel Noshie, and explained that Mr Noshie was only threatened with dismissal on many occasions. He conceded that there had been one dismissal but Mr Noshie had gone and pleaded with higher authorities and was subsequently restored. Answering another question on outstanding rent for the Logus Fort Hotel, Dr Wereko-Brobby said the secretariat and the management consultant of the hotel agreed that the consultant paid the remaining rent of $360,000. On the questions of souvenirs, he said they were distributed on time and waybills supplied to the secretariat but refused to bring them to the commission. A member of the commission, Mrs Marietta Appiah-Oppong, asked whether there was priority for the projects executed but Dr Wereko-Brobby said all the projects had been equally important. Mr Justice Duose asked him to submit an account of his stewardship and should not guess what the commission wanted. Dr Wereko-Brobby, in an answer to another question, said he asked those who received advanced mobilisation from the secretariat to account for it because he was the one who released the money to them. Mr Justice Duose, however, issued an open invitation to former metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) whose administrations participated in the celebration to appear before the commission by the end of next week. He said failure on their part to do so would compel the commission to send the security agencies to look for them. He said although he was not comfortable in sending security personnel to go after them, he would resort to that if he could not subpoena them. The former Chief of Staff, Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, intervened to say that he would help to locate and bring them to the commission and that it was not necessary to ask the security agencies to go after them. One of the counsel for Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, Mr Egbert Faibille Jnr, also objected to the idea of sending security personnel to go after the former MMDCEs. He said some of those former MMDCEs might be in their villages and might not be aware of the fact that they were being subpoenaed to appear before the commission.
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