"Stop Finding Faults And Show Gratitude" - Wereko Brobbey

The former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana@50 Secretariat, Dr. Charles Wereko Brobbey, has urged Ghanaians to desist from finding faults with people�s performance and show gratitude to those who render selfless service to the nation. He says such an attitude will make it difficult for well meaning Ghanaians to give their all to the nation. �We should praise doers and recognize their fallibility�only doers provide solutions to the country�s problems. We must not push away doers to make it difficult for others to serve the nation,� he said. Dr. Wereko Brobbey made these assertions at the Justice Doulce Commission of Inquiry, tasked by the Atta Mills government to investigate the celebration of Ghana�s fiftieth birthday in 2007. The three member commission has been sitting Since July 23 this year, during which it has heard testimonies from about two hundred witnesses and petitioners who were one way or the other connected to Ghana at fifty celebrations held in 2007. Dr. Wereko Brobbey took his turn before the commission on Tuesday October 13, to answer questions on the circumstances that led to the formation of the secretariat, its mandate, and how the allocated budget was utilized. Briefing the commission, Dr. Brobbey described the celebrations as generally successful and stated that the secretariat accrued more than over 36 million Ghana cedis in profit even though he would not put premium on who may have corrupted the system. In a presentation that lasted well over four hours, Dr. Wereko Brobbey told the three member committee before a packed capacity hall that he personally used about two billion old Ghana cedis of his personal resources to prefinance many of the projects because at the beginning of there was no budgetary allocation for the Ghana at 50 secretariate at the initial stages. He said the first tranche of $20 million was disbursed to the secretariat as late as June 2006 while the second tranche was released in January the following year. Dr. Wereko Brobbey also defended several projects the secretariat undertook, notably the rehabilitation of the Nkrumah Mausoleum and the green Ghana initiatives which he described as very essential for the celebrations. On the question of remuneration, Wereko Brobbey said even though he has received about $72 thousand dollars as remuneration, the state still owes him and must therefore be appreciated for a good job done. He says all evidence to prove that he spent about two billion old Ghana cedis of his personal money to prefinance the secretariat's projects are available at the presidency for verification. The Ghana@50 Commission of Enquiry is at the tail end of its three months fact finding mission and is expected to wound up its mission in two weeks. Dr. Wereko Brobbey is scheduled to reappear before the commission on Wednesday October, 14 while the Chairman of the National Planning Committee of the celebrations, Kojo Mpiani is expected to also make an appearance at the committee as the last witness.