Accra, July 1, GNA - The Millennium Excellence Award Foundation on Friday, said it has a policy that one person cannot be a recipient in the same category more than once.

This the reason why the name of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first President was missing from the list of nominees for this year's awards. He was the recipient of the personality award in the first event organised in 2000, a statement in Accra stated. It said that in line with its objectives of making the second edition transparent and to meet international standards the Foundation published the names for year's Award.

The Foundation said it did thorough investigation into the background of a large number of Ghanaians, foreigners and companies before coming up with the list. It said the Foundation believed that these individuals and groups had over the years dedicated themselves to building Ghana to earn the country respectability among the comity of nations.

A total of 26 distinguished Ghanaians, foreigners and corporate bodies would be rewarded on August 19 2005, the Foundation said, adding that, its offices were opened to the public for further enquiries. Since the publication of the list of nominees, questions had been raised as to why the name of Dr Nkrumah was missing.