Ranking member of Parliament’s Youth, Sports, and Culture Committee, Kobena Woyome, has pointed out inconsistencies in the reported expenditures for feeding athletes during the 2023 African Games.
Woyome revealed that participating nations were charged $80 per athlete per day by the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for both accommodation and meals.
He emphasised that these daily fees were paid directly to the LOC.
“What is staggering, which I think I haven’t mentioned in the previous interview, is that the participating countries that were housed paid almost $80 per person daily for food and accommodation. Yeah, they paid to the LOC,” he told JoySports.
The aforementioned amount contradicts a gigantic $15 million, which was said to have been spent on feeding athletes at the Games in a report submitted to the committee.
Woyome could not comprehend the expenditure on feeding athletes at the Games and thus stated that the committee is looking to investigate.
“So if all these monies were paid, then why do you have to spend $15 million for almost the same thing? We are not too sure, and there are things that we are not clear about, so we will go into this matter.”
Kobena Woyome’s revelation added to the African Games broadcasting rights saga, where an account given by the Sports Minister suggested that the ministry paid in excess of $3 million to GBC for the coverage of the 13th African Games.
However, GBC’s Director-General, Professor Amin Alhassan, denied receiving the said amount and clarified that the state broadcaster earned $105,000.