Kofi Annan Center Guzzles Gh¢850k Yearly

Investigations conducted by The Chronicle into the operations of the Advanced Information Technology Institute of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence (AITI-KACE) has revealed that the institute is running at a loss of GH¢ 500,000.00 annually.The Centre, which was established in 2003 and became operational in 2004, has an annual expenditure of GH¢ 850,000.00 (including emoluments) against an annual income of GH¢350,000.00.This development, The Chronicle learnt, is weighing heavily on the economy since the financial assistance from the India government has also seized to flow without any reason.As a result of this, the performance of the Centre is below average in meeting its stated objectives of increasing students’ enrolment to 1,200 by end of 2009, increase revenue base to US$1,000,000.00 by the end 2009 and to explore the potentials of six institutions-two from the Economic Community of West African States for Information Communication Technology training whilst entering into partnership in 2009.Since its inception, no strategic plans have been set for the centre to operate on.At a recent visit by the Minister of Communications, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, to the prestigious AITI-KACE, he stated that “the attrition rate at the centre was uncalled for” and needed intervention. The Chronicle also gathered that staff moral at the Centre is low and most staff that were trained abroad by the Centre from government treasury have all left without any apparent reason.Mrs. Dorothy K. Gordon, the Managing Director of the center, when contacted rather requested for the source of the information and declined to comment on the story when the reporter refused to disclose the source. She directed the reporter to talk to the Ministry of Communications since she is only an employee of the Government of Ghana.“You will have to give me the source of that information because everybody is entitled to their opinion. I cannot really comment on this story and I will suggest that you call the Ministry of Communications which will be in a better place to comment on this”.“I am officially giving you no comment on it. If you wish to run the story and say you’ve done an investigation and this is what you arrived at, that will be your opinion. I repeat, I am not going to comment on the story. I am only an employee of the Government of Ghana”, she told the paper.