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15.08.2014 General News

Stinky Deals At Brazil: Other Officials Received USD$100,000 Apart From Black Stars

By CitifmOnline.com
Stinky Deals At Brazil: Other Officials Received  USD100,000 Apart From Black  Stars
15.08.2014 LISTEN

It has emerged that other officials apart from the Black Stars team received the same 100,000 dollars in appearance fees at the just ended Brazil 2014 World Cup.

This was revealed by the Chief Director at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Alhaji Abdulai Yakubu and the Ministry's Chief Accountant, Prosper Kpasu on Thursday, during the third day of sittings of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry set up to look into Ghana's participation at the World Cup.

Who got the appearance fees in Brazil?

The Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Bank of Ghana appeared before the Justice Dzamefe-led commission to provide answers on their respective roles in relation to monies paid to the Ghanaian team at the Brazil 2014.

The Chief Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Alhaji Abdulai Yakubu said: “When the government-approved budget was submitted to the Sports ministry, we had discussions with the Ghana Football Association [GFA] and agreed that the appearance fee should be 82,500 dollars and that the [GFA] was to convey this agreement to the players.”

He added: “the players rejected the amount and rather demanded an appearance fee of 100, 000 dollars.

So in a letter dated 25th June 2014 and signed by GFA's General Secretary, Emmanuel Gyimah, the GFA decided to top up the initial 82,500 dollars approved by government as the appearance fee with of 17,500 dollars from their coffers at the insistence of the Black Stars”.

Commission Chairman Justice Dzamefe then asked why the other officials apart from the Black Stars received the same amount since they [the officials] were not the ones demanding the top–up.

But Alhaji Abdulai Yakubu remained silent for minutes and said, “I can't answer that question, my Lord”.

In addition to the above revelations, Alhaji Yakubu added that there were two budgets for the World Cup; one that was financed by the government and another one financed by the GFA and world football governing body FIFA.

He explained the budget that was financed by government was to take care of per diem of players, technical team and other officials, winning bonuses , imprest for staff that were contracted by Government including miscellaneous items.

Alhaji Abdulai Yakubu stated that the per diems were paid to the 40 people in the Ghanaian contingent – twenty three players, ten members of the technical team and seven management members of the GFA.

This prompted Chairman Dzamefe to demand from the Chief Director all documents pertaining to how much was spent on each of the forty.

Bank of Ghana

The infamous $3m airlift

The Bank of Ghana was represented by the Head of the Banking Department Elly Ohene Adu, who spoke to a litany of issues of issues including the airlifting of $3 million which made Ghana the object of international ridicule.

Her opinion was similar to the one made by Major (rtd) Mahama Tara, Chief Director at the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday that the money should have been transferred to Brazil electronically.

Mrs. Ohene Adu went further to say that another option was to send the money ahead of time so that it would be ready for disbursement to the players when they demanded it.

The Commission will continue sitting on Friday and the Ministry of Youth and Sports is expected to reappear and give further explanations of several matters of interest surrounding Ghana's participation in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

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