A sports journalist with Otec FM, a private radio station in Kumasi, Ashanti region, Seth Ofori Acheampong, has called for the dismissal of the Youth and Sports Minister Hon. Isaac Asiamah, following his inability in the implementation of the White Paper produced by the Dzamefe Commission that investigated the 2014 World Cup fiasco in Brazil 2014, and has called for his dismissal.
According to the sports analyst, the sector minister should have drawn to the attention of President Nana Akufo Addo to implement the report that indicted some government officials and members of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) of misappropriation of state funds, to retrieve that money.
The 2014 White Paper was generated following a commission of inquiry which was set up by former President John Mahama to investigate Ghana’s disastrous Brazil 2014 World Cup Campaign.
As part of its work, the Presidential Commission headed by Justice Senyo Dzamefe uncovered a number of issues, including several cases of alleged embezzlement of state funds as well as the reason behind the infamous airlifting of 3 million dollars to pay Black Stars players.
But in answering a question during a media encounter at the Flagstaff House in Accra on Wednesday, January 17, 2017, President Akufo Addo has revealed that the white paper produced from the evidence gathered by the Dzamefe Commission to serve as a roadmap for the administration of football in the country has been forgotten and is not one of his major worries but indicated that his Sports minister will have to advise the government on what to do with the White Paper.
Speaking on Otec FM’s afternoon sports show ‘Royal Sports’ on Wednesday January 18, 2018, “Scandy”, as he affectionately called, said the response by Nana Addo on the implementation of the Dzamefe Commission report was unfortunate, but would rather blame the Sports Minister who has shown disinterest in the implementation of the report because of his links to some top hierarchy of the GFA.
“The response from the president is disrespectful to Ghanaians who voted his party into power based on his campaign promises, one of which was dealing with corrupt officials of the then ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). I will not blame the President but Hon. Isaac Asiamah who was castigating former President John Mahama for shielding his corrupt appointees and some GFA officials. Hon. Asiamah has shown that he cannot protect the public purse so he should be sacked before another ‘Brazil fiasco’ is recorded,” he said.
He said, according to the Dzamefeh report, GHC8 million were not accounted for by the government and sports officials who led the entourage to Brazil, and such amount is enough to cater for ministry in budget allocation.
“The government of Ghana approved GHC 24 million as budget for the Black Stars at the 2018 world cup in Brazil, GHC8 million was not accounted for and those people found guilty of misappropriation were made to refund the money. Why is the sector minister not reminding the president to implement it to get the money back? It is obvious that the Sports minister is not interested because of his links to some of the indicted officials, and has also shown that he cannot protect the public purse, hence the need to be sacked,” he reiterated.
Source: Francis Appiah
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