Sports News of Wednesday, 24 June 2015
Source: The Finder
Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Former Sports Minister
An evacuation team that was meant to transport supports from the Accra Sports Stadium to the Kotoka International Airport spent a whopping GH?15,000, the Commission of Inquiry report has revealed.
A simple calculation of dividing GH?15,000 by 612 supporters indicates that it cost approximately GH?25 to transport each supporter from the Accra Sports Stadium to the airport.
According to checks made by The Finder, three Metro Mass Transit buses were used for the evacuation exercise, which literally means each bus charged GH?5,000 from the Accra Sports Stadium to the Kotoka International Airport.
However, officials of Metro Mass Transit told The Finder that during the World Cup, hiring a bus for a day within the Accra Metropolis cost GH?550.
Another shocking revelation from the office of Metro Mass Transit showed that the said amount of GH?15,000 has not been paid to the company.
In Section 2 of the commission’s report, captured as World Cup Supporters’ Project Committee Account (Operating Expenses), the said expenditure was captured under ‘Unsupported Cost.’
Our source at the company mentioned that the bus was not only used to transport supporters from the stadium to the airport as stated in the report but was also used to convey supporters from other locations like Nima to the airport.
A leading member of the Nationwide Supporters Union (NSU), Abdul Aziz Haruna Futa said out of the 612 supporters that were airlifted to Brazil, core members from the various supports group were just about 200.
He said the remaining figure was made up of political party supporters and other Ghanaians who won World Cup promotions.
The commission report stated that about 32 supporters’ union are registered at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, but in the selection of the groups, there was no transparency or criteria used.