The Dzamefe Commission report has revealed how power companies and other struggling state institutions paid huge sums of money to sponsor supporters to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
The sponsorship was to enable the supporters cheer the Black Stars on to victory but it turned out most of the supporters arrived at a time Ghana’s matches were over.
Chronicling the number of institutions which made the donation, the report named Ghana Commercial Bank as paying ₵300,000, the National Lotteries Authority, ₵250,000 and pensions company, SSNIT contributed ₵1million.
Despite a crippling power crisis in the country, power companies were not left out of the nationwide contributions by state institutions.The Electrictiy Company of Ghana paid ₵50,000, with the Volta River Authority also paying ₵53,000 in two installments.
The Ghana Free Zones Board is said to have paid ₵103,000. The Metro Mass Transport also contributed a pitiable 1,235.00 cedis.
Most of the monies contributed have not been well accounted for, the commissioners have stated, and have proposed that key players in transport of supporters from Ghana to Brazil must be surcharged.
The Dzamefe report has since called for the cancellation of funding for supporters for national tournaments.
It also called for the coordinator of the World Cup, Fred Darko to be investigated for conflict of interest. His own company E-volution, was paid to manage some fan parks in Ghana.
Fred Darko’s company was paid by the headline sponsor of the Black Stars, GNPC on the recommendations of the Elvis Afriyie Ankrah who was Sports Minister at the time.
The Dzamefe report catalogues events leading to Ghana’s ill-fated participation at the 2014 World Cup in June 2014.
Player revolt over the delayed payment of 100,000 dollars in appearance fees for each member of the Ghana team resulted in the airlifting of three million dollars to pacify the players who refused to train for their final group game against Portugal.
They lost that game by 2-1 and were eliminated in the first round after salvaging just one point from a possible nine.
This article has 0 comment, leave your comment.