Government wants further investigations into the Ghana Football Association (GFA)’s claims of debt incurred in some friendly matches, income the federation got from some friendlies and amount of money spent in preparation of the Black Stars before the tournament in Brazil as the Dzamefe Commission was unable to ascertain whether these claims were true or false.
The government white paper on the inquiry into the country’s participation in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil called for these further investigations to be carried out by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) ‘to clear any doubt of double funding, misapplication or misappropriation of funds’, the approved report said.
The government’s white paper also approved the recommendation that the President of the GFA, Kwesi Nyantakyi, should be queried over the amount of $200,000 government gave him to prepare for a friendly match to ascertain whether it was rightly applied.
The BNI will carry out the further investigations as the recommendation by the Dzamefe Commission for the setting up of a Special Investigative Team was to unravel these doubts was rejected by the government white paper.
The investigations would seek to ascertain the claims of losses totalling $1,002,000 during the matches involving Ghana and Cape Verde, Ghana and Nigeria, and Ghana and Togo.
Again, the investigations would establish the claim by the GFA that an amount of $350,000 it received from the Japan friendly game was used to offset the deficit incurred in the Ghana – Cape Verde qualifying match.
Another area to be investigated is whether match fees for the Ghana versus Holland and Ghana versus South Korea friendly matches were eventually paid by the match agents or organisers after the request by Cabinet to the Ghana National Petroleum Authority (GNPC) to fund the matches and how the funds were applied.
Besides the GFA is to be investigated on how it applied the FIFA World Cup preparation money of $1.5 million and the $2 million they received from GNPC before the World Cup vis-a-vis match agent funding of the friendly matches to the World Cup to clear any doubt of double funding, misapplication or misappropriation of funds.
These were contained in a government White Paper on the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the Black Stars participation in the tournament, which was released today during a news briefing at the Flagstaff House.
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, who briefed presidential correspondents, said the government accepted the recommendations for the GFA and its boss to be investigated.
Statement of account for supporters
On how supporters were catered for during the tourney, the White Paper said, “The government accepts the commission’s recommendation that the unaccounted for expenditure of GH¢189,000 should be investigated and anyone found culpable should be surcharged.”
Co-efficient theory
It also took note of the “co-efficient theory and definition of “management” by the GFA president and said, “government accepts the recommendation that the concept of “co-efficient” and “management” as defined by the GFA boss should be dismissed.
“Government further accepts that the management members of the GFA as known and present at the World Cup who should have been paid appearance fee for as budgeted are Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi, Alex Ansong, Moses Armah, Yaw Boateng Gyan and Ofosu Bamfo,” the White paper said.
The report stated again that in future the intent of compensating members of the national teams should be made clear.
The Attorney General said the White Paper was in three parts. These include recommendations that were accepted, those that were not accepted and those that were accepted with modifications.
Background
The three-man Commission chaired by Justice Senyo Dzamefe, was constituted by the president to investigate the circumstances surrounding Ghana’s disgraceful performance at the World Cup.
The final report was presented to the President on March 30, this year.
Other members of the Commission were Messrs Moses Foh-Amoaning, a legal practitioner and Kofi Anokye Owusu-Darko, a sports enthusiast.
The Commission spent four months probing the events leading to the Black Stars’ participation through to their exit from the tournament.
In all 85 witnesses appeared before the Commission.
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