The CEO of the erstwhile Ghana@50 Secretariat, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby says the secretariat made enough money to defray its debt. He has therefore called on the Presidential Commission investigating the activities of the secretariat to make recommendations to the government for the immediate payment of all outstanding debts owed contractors and other service providers who rendered services during the celebrations of Ghana's 50th independence anniversary. Giving testimony at his third and last day of appearance before the Commission, Dr. Wereko-Brobby said there was no justification for contractors not to be paid uptil now. That is because, there is enough money in the secretariat’s account to pay them. He said he had prepared pay vouchers, which had been pre-audited and finally audited in readiness for payment of the contractors as at 31st December. Those pay vouchers, he said, should be vetted and the nominal sums owed the contractors paid so that reasonable interests on the money owed them can be calculated later and paid. A Commission member, Mr Osei Tutu Prempeh drew Dr Wereko-Brobby's attention to the fact that some of the contractors had taken the state to court over their unpaid money and had won, piling up huge judgement bills on the state as a result of the secretariat's failure to pay them in time. Reacting, the erstwhile CEO of the Ghana@50 Secretariat said, "What I'm telling the public is this; before the 31st of December 2008, every single contractor that I know of, who was owed, was prepared to be paid the nominal sum that they were owed. It was for that reason that we prepared all the payment vouhcers and sent them for pre-auditing and auditing. So my position is this, there was money to settle most of those debts at the transtition time (but) an enbargo was put on payments from public purse." He explained that "that embargo was not put by me...that embargo went on for a long long time. In my view there has been absolutely no reason why those contractors have not been paid since the beginning of January and therefore those (contractors) who felt, and many felt, that the chances of getting their money back was very little or nil, decided to resort to the courts." According to him, no attempts were made to involve him in the legal processes. "My contention is that these delays need not have happened and they are not of my billing," he concluded. Responding to queries from Mr Prempeh as to why he paid his staff while he had himself not been paid, Dr Wereko-Brobby said he felt that he owed it a duty to the contractors who pre-financed the activities of the Ghana@50 celebrations, and who had not been paid, to make sure their monies were paid before he would think about himself. He said if he taken his pay, he would have been accused of paying himself when people he had engaged to provide services to the secretariat had not been paid. Story by Malik Abass Daabu/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana