GOC boss tells NSA to stay off federations

0
60

Sports News of Monday, 20 January 2020

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2020-01-20

Ben Nunoo MensahBen Nunoo Mensah

Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) president, Ben Nunoo Mensah, has described as unfounded, warning by the National Sports Authority (NSA) directing his outfit to desist from removing NSA officers from the various sporting federations.

He has challenged the Director General (DG) of the NSA, Professor Peter Twumasi, to provide relevant portions of the Legislative Instrument and Sports Act which enjoins him to appoint secretary generals for national federations.

“Ask him to quote the law which gives him the right to appoint secretary generals for the national federations, simple,” an enraged Nunoo-Mensah remarked to the Graphic Sports in an interview last Thursday.

Mr Nunoo-Mensah, who also doubles as the president of the Ghana Weightlifting Federation, cautioned the NSA to refrain from such directives since according to him, that would incur the wrath of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

“Ghana was banned when the IOC realised that government was appointing people onto the national federations,” he stated.

It will be recalled that on December 20 last year, the NSA issued a cease and desist circular signed by the DG, Prof. Twumasi, and copied to the Youth and Sports Minister, Isaac Kwame Asiamah, exhorting sporting federations, associations and the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) to desist from removing NSA officers from the various sporting federations.

Since then, Kobena Mensah Woyome has also issued a statement admonishing the director general of the NSA to act lawfully and refrain from imposing general secretaries on the various sporting federations and associations.

The statement sighted by the Graphic Sports read: “We write to admonish the Director General of the National Sports Authority and the Authority to aver themselves to Section 29 clause 1, sub-clause C and D of Act 934 of the Sports Act 2016, where the Minister is supposed to put a regulation/legislative instrument in place to regulate all associations within the limit indicated in the act with emphasis placed on content of the said LI/Regulation being in agreement with the international bodies to which such associations are committed to,”.

“Unfortunately, there is nowhere in Act 934 that gives power to the director general to carry out oversight functions or implement regulations of Act 934 that seeks to impose officers. Regulation to Act 934 does not exist,” it concluded.

The GOC president called for circumspections and wider consultations before such decisions such as the one by the NSA are taken.