A member of the dissolved Funeral Planning Committee of late President Mills, Nana Ato Dadzie has disclosed that members of the committee were not paid a dime for the work they did in putting up a befitting burial for the late president within a short notice.
According to him, “We started this programme without a pesewa; we didn’t have a budget so we went out there, spent our own monies to buy food to keep ourselves and we bought our own petrol.”
“Don’t forget, I’m a private man and for three weeks I had to leave my job. I joined this work, did it voluntarily; we didn’t receive a pesewa for the work that we did,” he told host of e.tv Ghana’s flagship programme, Awake.
Nana Ato Dadzie’s expose is as a result of calls from anti-corruption bodies such as the Ghana Integrity Initiative for the committee to make public detailed expenditure made during the late president’s funeral.
However, Nana Ato Dadzie explained that as a committee, it was their mandate to give the overall expenditure.
He said, “Clearly, we are a committee, we are not a body by itself. What we tried to do yesterday was to tell the world that we’ve put all our accounts together. We wish we had the power or right to go public with everything.”
“What we gave out was the broad brushes. We spent 3.6 million, had donations of 2.2, there was a shortfall of 1.4 and technically, the 1.4 was a bill that government contributed to the whole funeral of a whole head of state; a president of the republic of Ghana, sixteen heads of states attending the funeral. Rashida, we are talking of big business over here,” he noted.
He further explained that it would be an act of irresponsibility for the committee to disclose a detailed cost.
He said, “The point I am making is that, we would love to give you every detail. But I’m saying it’s an act of irresponsibility. We cannot run away from accountability but I’m saying that the person to open the detail is there. There’s nothing secret about it, nothing confidential about it. Just that we are not the proper persons to say it.”
The chief attorney for former Minister of Education, Betty Mould Iddrisu further disclosed that the committee in itself did not receive cash donations on behalf of government during the course of events.
He said all cash donations were directed to the office of the Chief of Staff where an accountant was made to receive them.
“We had donations in cash and kind. We didn’t receive cash donations essentially. There was an office within the office of the president, which is the chief of staff’s office. An account was opened and advertised so we asked those who were making donations to just make a cheque addressed to the funeral planning committee. There was an accountant, a public officer in the office of the chief of staff,” he explained.
Source: etvghana.com
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