Corruption here, Corruption there, Corruption everywhere

--GH¢808,955.00 and US$2.2 Million for 232 Contingent

Documents intercepted by the Front Page newspaper suggests financial impropriety and malfeasance in the run-up to Ghana's participation in the All African Games hosted in Maputo the capital town of Mozambique in 2011. In the said documents, the National Sports Council (NSC) led by its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Worlanyo Agra presented a total budget of GH¢808,955.00 and US$2.2million for 232 contingents.

STRUCTURES UNDERMINED

The Committee believes that given the extent of managerial incompetence, institutionalized corruption and organization rot that is going on at the National Sports Council, it is only a ‘roots and branch’ shake up of the entire setup that will rid the organization of these ills.

FAILINGS OF THE CHEF DE MISSION

Mr. Erasmus Adorkor was the main cause of the accreditation problems experienced by Team Ghana in Maputo. He failed woefully to meet deadlines set for Chefs de Mission to complete the accreditation process electronically, which would have guaranteed that Team Ghana had pre-accreditation tags before entering Mozambique.

The Committee found out that visa fees for entering Mozambique were waived for all participating countries. However, because Team Ghana had not complied with the pre-accreditation requirements Mr. Adorkor engaged in unnecessary and needless spending: $1,320.00 on visa fees; $1,750.00 on feeding; and another $538.00 on feeding, all as a result of lack of accreditation.

According to the Committee Mr. Adorkor was negligent in booking Paradise Lodge: first, for not seeing the rooms before booking; and second, for keeping the reservations for the 10 rooms for 10 days without putting the rooms to good use or letting go of them. By not doing so, the National Sports Council lost $900.00.

POOR INFORMATION FLOW

Mr. Adorkor failed to relay information concerning the Games to both athletes and officials travelling to the Games. All Chefs de Mission were supplied dossiers that contained information needed the various sporting disciplines for the Games. Yet, Mr. Adorkor got these dossiers and kept them to himself without sharing them with athletes and officials going to Maputo.

He also failed to comply with the requirement that each country was supposed to inform COJA of its arrival 30 days before time. As a result no Ghanaian group was met at the Maputo Airport by a reception party.

PAYMENT OF ALLOWANCES

The Committee also finds that the National Sports Council obtained money from Government to pay the Ghanaian contingent for 22 days, but then paid them for 18 days only.

The Committee finds that the Vice-President of the Ghana Taekwondo Association, Mr. Chris Essilfie, was not paid his per diem allowance of $500.00 which was the first tranche paid to all Presidents of sports associations and/or their representatives.

NON-UTLIZATION OF FUNDS

The Committee finds that out of a total sum of GH356,725.00 cedis voted by Government for the purchase of general kitting for athletes and officials, not one pesewa was spent or utilized for that purpose. Thus, Ghanaian athletes and officials went to the Games without branded or national wear supplied by the National Sport Council. Nigeria, for example, came to the Games with at least four different uniforms, not to mention straw hats, caps, which had all been branded in national colours.

The Committee also finds that out of an amount of GH185,925.00 cedis the Government voted for the purchase of kits, equipment, and accessories for the needs of individual sporting disciplines participating in the Games, only GH44,000.00 was spent on three sports associations, leaving many associations without any kits and accessories.

The Committee finds that the President of the Badminton Association, Mr. Nestor Percy Galley, spent $150.00 of his own money in Maputo to re-string rackets and further bought seven new rackets for his players at the cost of $150.00 each. He also paid $100.00 for the one night he spent at the Paradise which he should not have paid, thus making a total sum of $1,300.00 that he should not have had to pay out of pocket.

OVER-PAYMENT TO TRAFIX CATERING SERVICE

The Committee finds that the Managing Director of Trafix Catering Service, Madam Bella Ahu, was overpaid to the tune of GH48,804.00 cedis. She presented an invoice for feeding 200 athletes and officials for 20 days at the cost of GH20.00 per day, totaling GH80,000.00 cedis. The invoice also included GH231.20 for water plus 15% VAT of GH12,034.00, all of which amounted to GH92,265.88 cedis. However, by our calculations per information received from the General Secretaries about their respective teams, Trafix could actually have fed only 148 athletes and officials over different days that numbered fewer than 20 in the case of virtually all the teams. Because there was actually no contract document stating the unit price per plate, the Committee reverted to the feeding cost of GH18.00 per day, which Trafix had charged the National Sports Council for the Unity Games.

QUALITY OF TAILORING SERVICE BY KWASHIE TAILORS

The Committee finds that Kwashie Tailor & Dry Cleaners failed to supply 205 suits to Team Ghana by 28th August 2011 as stipulated in the contract letter. Because of the late delivery of the suits Team Ghana could not use the suits for the purpose for which they were intended.

The Committee also finds that there was no supervision of the tailoring job undertaken by Kwashie Tailors, because if the job had been supervised it would have been known that only 70 suits had been delivered by the time Team Ghana departed to Maputo. The last suits were delivered on 19th October 2011, that is to say, a whole month after the Maputo Games had officially ended on 18th September.

QUALITY OF TRAVEL SERVICE BY ROYAL DERBY TOURS

The Committee finds Royal Derby Tours to have provided a very poor quality service to the National Sports Council when the latter contracted the company to airlift Team Ghana to Maputo for the All Africa Games. The main reason the company provided the poor quality service was because it did not have the money to secure the airline seats the National Sports Council had ordered.

The Committee finds Royal Derby Tours to be liable for the trauma experienced by 16 Team Ghana passengers who got stranded, and in distress, in South Africa for three days, and who ended up having to travel to Maputo by road.

The Committee finds Royal Derby Tours liable for the luggage of the Disabled Sports athletes and officials which was left behind in South Africa for a good one week. The least Royal Derby Tours could have done, knowing it was going to use Oliver Tambo Airport as a transit airport for over 200 of its passengers many of whom Royal Derby had not been able to secure through passage for, was to have stationed one of its agents in Johannesburg or negotiated with South African Airlines, or another airline, to manage the transit transactions for a fee. After all, this was a very sizeable contract for almost GH1,000,000 cedis. The Committee finds that Mr. Erasmus Adorkor, the Chef de Mission, failed to exercise appropriate judgment by not using part of the $10,000 imprest he had on him to alleviate the suffering of the disabled athletes. Mr. Adorkor should have arranged for the luggage of the disabled athletes and officials to be airlifted from Johannesburg to Maputo within a day or two of knowing about the plight of ‘Disabled Team Ghana’. The disabled athletes, without their wheelchairs could not leave their place of lodging even to go for food; tragically, after the first day their coach, who was picking up food from the cafeteria for all the athletes, was no longer allowed to do so by the cafeteria officials.