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Politics

Ghana birthday ‘wasted millions’

Ghana's former government massively overspent on celebrations to mark 50 years of independence, a report says. Auditor General Edward Duah Agyemang said the final bill was nearly $80m (£56m) - about four times more than the original budget. Former chief of staff Kwadwo Mpiani, who was in charge of the celebrations, described the report as "wrong and unprofessional". The country's new administration recently said it was bankrupt. Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence from the UK in 1957. Non-existent toilets The interim audit report gave a long list of expensive plans for the celebrations, some of which it said never came to life. It said $800,000 had been provided to build 25 public toilets across the country, but only one had been constructed so far. The report also spoke of tax evasion and unsubstantiated payments. It said the committee charged with organising the festivities had not maintained proper books. The overspend relates not only to the anniversary celebrations but to an African Union conference held shortly afterwards. Robust denial Mr Mpiani, who was in charge of the celebrations, told Ghana's JoyFM radio that the auditor general should not have made public the findings of an interim report. He denied any wrongdoing and said he would provide evidence to prove it. The government had every right to appoint a commission of inquiry, he said, but was wrong to "use a transition team as a back door to malign others". The auditor general's report comes days after Ghana's parliament criticised plans to give the former president John Kufuor a substantial retirement package, including six chauffeur-driven cars and two houses. Mr Kufuor stood down after two terms in office. The candidate for his New Patriotic Party, Nana Akufo-Addo, was narrowly beaten by John Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress in an election run-off in December 2008. Source: BBC

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