Kundum festival cash controversy: Afeku says there was no need to discuss budget with planning c'ttee

Following the Auditor-General’s report on the Tourism Ministry’s expenditure which has created discourse in the media, Madam Catherine Afeku has stated that it was not in the domain of the Kundum Festival Planning Committee to know how the fund was expended.

According to the former Tourism Minister, during the period of the festival, she engaged musicians to whom some amounts of money were paid out of the Gh¢200,000.00 but was quick to add that, it was not in the domain of the planning committee to know the amount of money that went into each aspect of the celebration.

“2018 we [Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture] sat with them. I told them we will do a program called Blue Monday. We give free t-shirt to the entire town to wear and we celebrate. We didn’t go to the planning committee to ask them for money. And we didn’t tell them how much it cost.

“Friday, we did Miss Kundum. We brought musicians to grace the occasion; how much the stage cost, how much the musicians were paid was not part of the discussion. All that they need was this was going to be in your agenda. So the meeting does not include discussion of budget,” she said on Angel FM’s Anɔpa Bɔfoɔ morning show, Wednesday, September 1, 2020.

Her comment was in reaction to the planning committee members’ disclaimer that they have no idea about the source of the money and how the money was spent.

According to the Auditor-General’s report, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture’s Chief Director released some Gh¢200,000 to support the celebration of the festival, an amount the Auditor instructs the Chief Director to ensure is refunded since it was meant for “Marine Drive Project.”