Accra (Greater Accra), 7th April '99 -

Mr D. D. Obiri, Chief Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports on Tuesday said the rules for the award of contract for the rehabilitation of the Accra and Kumasi Stadiums were not bent. He was reacting to a statement by Mr Kofi Opoku-Manu, Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance, who told the Tagoe Committee at its sitting last Wednesday that the rules were bent due to time constraints and to save the country from embarrassment. Mr Opoku-Manu who is also secretary to the central tender board had told the committee that the additional works valued at 10.07 billion cedis did not go to the central tender board for consideration. He said it negotiated with the Arab Contractors, who had then won the original contract of 1.7 billion cedis at the regional tender board. But Mr Obiri, who was making his second appearance before the committee said as far he was concerned, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, client for the contract, never bent the procedure in the award of the additional works. At his first appearance last Thursday, Mr Obiri was asked to furnish the committee with information as to when Ghana was given the mandate to host the tournament, but he failed. And when the same question was posed to him on Tuesday, he told the committee he had been busy but would do all he could to provide the committee with the information. Witness spent the rest of the time fuming at what he termed "unfair press coverage" of the probe proceedings so far. Sitting continues.