Barreto Owes Ghana $20,800

Former Black Stars Coach, Mariano Barreto is to refund to the Government of Ghana, $13,800 in addition to a penalty of $7,000 for vacating his post in October 2004.

The Portuguese national, who was preparing the senior national team, the Black Stars, towards the World Cup Tournament in 2006, was granted a salary advance of $30,000 in February 2005 for a two-year contract, but vacated his post before the contract expired.

Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports confirmed this on Tuesday while answering questions at the public hearing of Public Accounts Committee of Parliament in Accra.

He said Ghana had honoured all monetary sanctions imposed by the world football governing body, FIFA, but Mr Barreto was still flouting the ruling of FIFA to pay his debt.

"The Ministry would take the matter to court to compel Mr Barreto to settle his indebtedness to Ghana," he added.

The Committee examining the Auditor General's Department report for 2005 said there was double payment of bills by two sports institutions to the management of Silicon Hotel in Kumasi.

The Kumasi office of National Sports Council (NSC) paid GH¢449.60 (¢4,496,000) to management of the hotel after the Ghana Football Association (GFA) had initially paid GH¢448.50 (¢4,485,000) for the same transaction in June 2004.

However, officials from the Ministry, GFA and NSC said management of the hotel had refused to refund the money.

The Committee expressed its disappointment over the deal, and rejected the excuse for the double payment as an oversight and noted that the problem had arisen from lack of effective internal control.

It expressed its reservation over the payment of GH¢6,060 (¢60.6 million) between July 2003 and June 2004 for airfare, hotel bills and local travelling expenses to Mr Yaw Boahene, a London-based consultant for the maintenance of sports pitches without any consultancy agreement.

The audit report indicated that in 2004, the Sports Division of the Ministry paid more than GH¢10,100 (¢101 million) through Mr Larry Attafuah, Special Assistant of the Minister, for the supply of 1,000 leather footballs and 30 football pumps towards sports development, but only half of the consignment was supplied.

Besides, there was a VAT component of 1,198.77 Euro, but no VAT receipt was produced after payment.

On education, the Auditor General's Report of 2004 stated that six teachers from the Tema Municipal Directorate of Education who vacated their post were paid unearned salaries to the tune of GH¢2,080 (¢20.8 million).

Officials from the Ministry told the Committee that a thorough review of the unearned salary revealed an amount of GH¢2,790 (¢27.9 million) instead of the figure queried.

A breakdown of the refund of the unearned salary were, Mrs Rebecca Noye, GH¢880 (¢8.8 million); Philomena Elala, GH¢ 97.7 (¢977,000); Janet Terkpor, GH¢294(¢2.94 million); Esther Abaka-Mensah, GH¢456 (¢4.56 million); Emmanuel Armah, GH¢47.4 (¢474,389) and another person who was paid GH¢880 (¢8.8 million).