North Tongu’s Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has intensified his criticism of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) over the bloated budget prepared for the senior national team during its time at the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON).
In an interview on Peace FM, Mr Ablakwa, described the GFA as a disrespectful institution for trying to play a smart one on Parliament and the Ghanaian public by withholding details of how much it planned to spend on the Black Stars at AFCON.
He noted that prior to the commencement of the tournament in Ivory Coast, Parliament requested the budget prepared for the Black Stars but the GFA claimed that it was yet to be finalised.
For him, this does not bid well for Ghana’s democratic process as the Legislature is not a rubber stamp to be used anytime and anyhow.
But after his own investigations, Mr Ablakwa has discovered the extravagant expenditure the GFA had plan to undertake.
“It is our responsibility to keep the Executive on its toes. To be able to do the job well, you need evidence. If you have an Executive that doesn’t want to be transparent, accountable. If you can remember, going into this tournament, we asked in Parliament, time without number, that where is the budget. They told us it was not finalized so they can’t disclose it, which is not best practice.
“Zambia, weeks before the tournament, presented their budget to the Zambian Parliament. There was transparency. Ivory Coast and South Africa did same. Nigeria too. Why can’t Ghana do same? After the calamitous performance, instead of you to apologize to us, which you haven’t done.
“Parliament is not a rubber stamp. In the constitution, we are the custodians of the purse. Parliament is where you are to present your budget and we then scrutinize it. So we can protect the public purse and get value for money.
“Now you are back. Now you are trying to bring us more bills. You haven’t accounted for the previous one. You have rather set a committee and sending us an invoice. You just have no respect for the Ghanaian people. This is not democracy. This cannot be democracy. That is why we have decided to intercept all the documents,” he said.
In his recent disclosure, Mr. Ablakwa highlighted that the government allocated a substantial sum of US$8,506,450 for the Black Stars’ involvement in the ongoing African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Ivory Coast.
Should Ghana not have been prematurely kicked out of the AFCON tournament and won this year’s trophy, the Black Stars would have earned $7 million.
For Mr Ablakwa, it is beyond reasoning that the government would plan to spend more that it would generate from the tournament. He is also peeved by the fact that Zambia approved a total budget of only US$2.1million for its national team.
“This hefty US$8.5million translates into a colossal GHS105million at current exchange. Note that the GHS105 million is entirely separate from the GHS27.9million spent on the qualifiers. What this means is that even if the Black Stars had won the trophy, the public officials who put this budget together were determined to ensure that Ghana made losses in excess of US$1.5million,” the North Tongu legislator wrote.
Mr Ablakwa referenced an intercepted letter from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, dated 2nd January, 2024 which was addressed to the Minister of Finance requesting part payment of US$5,071,840.36 from the total Black Stars budget of US$8,506,450.00.
The request letter in issue was signed by the Chief Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Mr. William Kartey, on behalf of the Minister, Hon. Mustapha Ussif, he added.
“A painful addition to the scandalous GHS105million budget is that it did not guarantee success on the pitch either. It would be interesting to know what thought processes went into a scary US$8.5million budget for a bankrupt country which has defaulted on its loans and is desperately seeking an IMF bailout,” Mr Ablakwa added.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) announced a 40% increase in the prize money for the winner of the AFCON 2023, from $5 million to $7 million. The runner-up will receive $4 million, while the losing semifinalists will get $2.5 million each. The quarterfinalists will pocket $1.3 million each, and the third-placed team will earn $2 million.
Unfortunately, Ghana could not earn any of the aforementioned amounts as it failed to even progress beyond the group stages. Ghana lost to Cape Verde in its opener, drew with Egypt and Mauritania.
Subsequently, Chris Hughton, who led the Black Stars to the 2023 AFCON tournament quit his job, and now Ghana is in search of a new head coach for the senior national team.