Ghana's president says the country's 60 years celebration will cost GH₵ 20m

Speaking at the unveiling of the Ghana at 60 logo on Thursday, February 9 at the Flagstaff House, the president said that “the Ghanaian private sector and corporate Ghana, in particular, will provide the funds for this anniversary.”

“My ambition is to commemorate this anniversary with minimum or no burden at all on the national treasury… this must be a Ghanaian undertaking in its true sense and I am appealing to all Ghanaians to chip in to make a success of this important undertaking,” the President said.

What are Ghanaians saying about the cost of the celebration?

The president says the cost of the celebration will be mainly from the private sector and hence the burden on the national treasury will be minimal.

But many Ghanaians still remain unperturbed. For some of them, the celebration of the anniversary is unnecessary, considering the fact that even at 60 years we do not have a stable electricity supply, good drinking water, and unemployment is at the roof.

As Joseph Amoah, a vulcanizer on the streets of Accra puts it: “A lot of money is spent doing this,” he explained advising that “government should rather use the monies involved in the celebration to subsidize and also invest in people who don’t have jobs yet”.

Ghana@50 and its matters

The brouhaha which surrounded the Ghana@50 celebration a decade ago seems to have ruined the interest of many in the independence celebration.

Two years after the Ghana@50 celebrations, people were still complaining about the money spent by the secretariat.

The Next Generation Youth League International (NGYL), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), raised some ethical questions on how some of the monies earmarked for the celebrations were spent.

The Auditor-General’s Interim Report at the time showed that the total cost of the celebrations was (¢60,172,251.8400).

But the NGYLC raised issues of “fraud in the form of over-invoicing (¢432,000,000), purchases in excess of budget (¢1,080,000,000), failure to account for VAT deductions (¢3,796,575,000), failure to pay withheld taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (¢1,396,400,000), etc, financial recklessness, lack of proper cash books, no stock register of value books, no contract register, technically incompetent financial officer, etc, the total debt owed to contractors and suppliers ¢184,439,340,000 and the lack of priorities in spending.”

Dr Wereko-Brobby, aka Tarzan, who was the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana@50 Secretariat and Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani, Chairman of National Planning Committee for Ghana@50 were subsequently charged with four counts of causing financial loss to the State.

An Accra Fast Track High Court in August 2010, however, discharged the two of all charges.

Moving Forward?

It is ten years on from Ghana@50, and once again the country is getting ready to mark another independence anniversary.

The president, Nana Addo indicated at the launch of the planning Committee for the anniverary that the celebration should be modest. The Committee Members subsequently resolved to forfeit all allowances and remuneration in the course of its work.

That is a step in the right direction. For now, Ghanaians can hope for the best as the country prepares for the anniversary. As the president puts it: “It is appropriate that the theme of this programme should be one of reflection, celebration, challenge and togetherness.”