‘I Reported Loss of $45,000 to Veep’ -Mallam

Ousted Youth and Sports Minister, Malam Ali Yusuf Issa says he briefed Vice-President Aliu Mahama about the missing $46,000 immediately he returned from his ill-fated trip to Sudan three weeks ago.

According to the former Minister, he made a similar attempt on a later day, to brief President Kufuor about the issue but on the day in question, the President asked him to come another time since he (President Kufuor) was expecting an American delegation at his office.

“I might be a youngman but I know that I owe it as a duty to render a report to the appointing authority on anything that concerns my job as a Minister.”Malam Issa said he drove “straight” to the residence of the Vice President immediately after he had deposited the “controversial” suitcase at his office and gave him a detailed oral report of everything that transpired in Sudan, including the missing money. The suitcase allegedly contained the missing money, which was to be used to pay winning bonuses for the senior national team, the Black Stars.

Malam Issa who made these disclosures yesterday on an Accra radio station, Choice FM, for the umpteenth time attributed his ouster to the work of a syndicate operating from within the Ministry of Youth and Sports. He also insisted that the suitcase checked in by the protocol officer of the FA, Mr. Alex Asante actually contained the money. Alex had earlier in an interview with the Chronicle denied this. On his visit to the residence of the Alhaji Mahama, Malam Issa said, he met Mr. Ibrahim Sunday, a former national player, at the residence of the Vice-President that day and asserted that he (Sunday) could vouch for him when contacted.

“The very first day I returned from Khartoum I drove straight to my office dropped that particular bag in the office and drove straight to the Vice President’s residence. When I got there Ibrahim Sunday, the former footballer was there. He excused us. I stayed there for over an hour because of course it was a briefing and I had a lot to discuss with him. I might be a youngman but I owe it a duty to report to the appointing authority even when I am sick. Moreso our code of conduct makes it madatory for us to inform both the President and his vice about our whereabouts even on saturdays and sundays. Armed with this it would have been wrong on my part if I had toyed about such an issue of extreme national importance. Malam Issa’s appointment was revoked by President Kufuor last week after he challenged a government statement issued over his resignation over his role in the missing money.

On the missing money he maintained his earlier story implicating the two officials of the FA, namely Messrs Worlanyo Agrah and Alex Asante as the principal culprits. He also denied being advised by the two gentlemen about the risk of putting the money in the suitcase, insisting that the two came to his office after he had received the money from the principal accountant of the Ministry. They weren’t in my office so I didn’t know how they got to know that the money got to me in a nylon bag. They came to my office when I had removed the monies from the nylon bag.

I took out the two brown envelopes and I told them this one is going here and this one I am putting it in this one. He reiterated his earlier position that he was set up. According to him his dismissal was orchestrated by people who considered him a “thorn in their flesh.” These people he said were behind several deals he had unraveled and unplugged during his short tenure as Youth and Sports Minister and for which according to him, they had conspired to edge him out.

He said when he was nominated by the President he paid visits to the Ministry and discovered a geneal laxity and lack of seriousness approach to work According that on assuption of duty he called a meeting with staff of the ministry and warned them about issues of absenteeism, lateness and idling about during working hours.

He said he warned of drastic sanctions if these things occured during his tenure. However, Vice President Aliu Mahama in a statement says that the first time Malam informed him of the missing money was the morning when the Dispatch broke the story.