Jail Stares Kwadwo Mpiani, Others

fate of former Chief of Staff, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, Dr. Yves Wereko-Brobby, Hon. Abubakar Saddique hangs perilously on the decision to be taken by the President on the final report submitted to the presidency by the government transitional team on the various roles played by the said former government functionaries at the Ghana @50 Secretariat and the prosecution of other government projects.

According to Today information gathered stems to a fact that copies of the report had been submitted to all branches of the National Security to be studied and inform the presidency on the next line of action. This paper has it on authority that the National Security sat on the report last Saturday and from all indications, their opinion on the report is expected to get to the President this week.

The paper said scores of information from security sources hinted that the report is likely to be subjected to forensic auditing to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of some of the findings established against Mr. Mpiani and the others.

Copies of the report sighted by the paper make a serious indictment on the conduct of Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani and Dr. Wereko-Brobby in the award of contracts and the procurement of items in relation to the Ghana @50 Secretariat. Hon. Abubakar Saddique was also found culpable in the allocation of government affordable houses scheme. It was stated in the report that Hon. Abubakar Saddique allocated most of the houses to functionaries of the NPP administration.

Mr. Mpiani was sited for various acts of malfeasance in the prosecution of the Ghana @50 celebration. These include finances and the purchase of items including vehicles by the Ghana @ 50 Secretariat for the celebration of Ghana's 50th independence anniversary in 2007.

Although Dr. Wereko Brobby informed the Government Transitional Team that all purchases were approved by the oversight Ministry then headed by Mr. Mpiani, the report cited him as an accomplice and therefore had more to answer.

The two helmsmen at the Secretariat, according to the report, offered unsatisfactory answers to the Transitional Team's enquiries about importation of vehicles for the celebration of the Ghana @50 celebration.

The vehicles imported included latest class model Benz Salon Cars, Jaguars, and other exotic cars that run into millions of dollars. The cars were imported on behalf of the Ghana Government by FairLoop, a motor company, and according to the report government was yet to complete full payment of the vehicles.

The process and modalities for the distribution of the vehicles imported in connection with the occasion are believed to be shrouded in secrecy. The 139 vehicles that were imported for the occasion are believed to have been distributed among functionaries of the former administration.

That, in the estimation of the Government Transitional Team, resulted in the wanton search for the vehicles by the security detail, some of which had led to the embarrassing seizure of private vehicles of some former government officials, including NPP Presidential Candidate for the 2008 presidential elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Mr. Mpiani is thus expected to answer why that anomaly. As at the time of sitting by the Transitional Team, Management of Fair-Lip was said to have petitioned the Atta Mills' government to help them retrieve some of the cars and sell them to offset their debts.

Kwadwo Mpiani and Wereko Brobby are also expected to answer charges on the $12.9 million that was spent on the publication of souvenir Ghana @50 books to commemorate the Golden Jubilee celebration of Ghana as a nation-state.

Majority of the books are still locked up at the Information Services Department offices in Accra and other similar offices in the country. The amount realized so far in the sales, is way below the amount spent on the production of the books.

Out of the $12.9 million spent on the souvenir books, only 378,000 had been realized. This is because the souvenir books did not arrive at the expected period and only came after the Golden Jubilee celebration.

At the moment the rest of the books are locked up in a condemned office of the Greater Accra Information Service Department where some 2,181 boxes of the books are locked up. Some 32, 965 units of hard cover books and 81, 332 of the soft cover component have been stored at the Ministry of Information and the Information Service Training Centre, at the French Embassy area in Accra.

That revelation is one of the many adverse findings against the Ghana @50 Secretariat, headed by Mr. Mpiani and managed by Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby. Others include huge sums of money spent by the Secretariat on the provision of toilet facilities throughout the country, as part of the anniversary, only for a single one to be completed in Ho, in the Volta Region.

It turned out that some of the facilities are being used by street hawkers and porters as sleeping places.

Credit:TODAY Newspaper