NDC bigwigs kicked against GYEEDA rot investigation - Former Minister reveals

Former Minister of State, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah has revealed that the setting up of a committee by his ministry to investigate the alleged rot in the then Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) in 2013, was the turning point for his hatred by some members of his party.

According to him the fabricated stories against him started three months before the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

He added that even before the Ghana Football Association (GFA) could submit its budget to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to be forwarded to Cabinet through the Chief of Staff for approval, there was so much hullaballoo about him squandering or embezzling World Cup funds.

In an article cited by otecfmghana.com’s Samuel Mensah Gasinu, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah wondered why his own comrades would want to bring him down.

In May 2013, a Ministerial Impact Assessment Committee was formed to investigate financial irregularities and challenges at the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA).

Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, Minister for Youth and Sports, who announced that, said the Committee was mandated to review the regulatory framework of GYEEDA.

It is also expected to perform in-depth investigation to determine possible irregularities of crime and related financial losses as well as actions taken by management to recover possible embezzled money and other assets.

He wondered how a Minister of State can divert funds from a budget that was yet to be presented and approved, is a question only his detractors can answer. It defies simple logic and standard procedure, yet such baseless allegations were aggressively pushed and allowed to fester.

‘Later when the budget was presented and approved, the minister held a press conference to give the details of the budget through Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations, yet the attacks continued unabated,” he said.

“What is surprising though is that these attacks seem to be well coordinated and structured to achieve the maximum damaging effect. The amazing aspect is that in all these, his side of the story has been deliberately ignored or given very little attention, whiles the lies have rather been amplified and given unbridled prominence,” he bemoaned.

He said one of the funniest allegations carried in some newspapers is that he (Hon. Afriyie-Ankrah) was diverting the World Cup funds in order to build a war chest to contest President John Mahama as flag bearer in the NDC presidential primaries in the run up to the 2016 elections, an allegation, he said was and is still totally untrue.

Below is the full text

With reference to some issues discussed here earlier on, it is very important to make a few clarifications and put the issues of Brazil 2014 in proper context and perspective with verifiable facts.

This will ensure that there is balanced view on this subject in the face of the many misconceptions, misinterpretations, mischief and possible misunderstandings

Undoubtedly and quite sadly, a lot of Comrades have been misled into believing outright falsehood and half-truths laden with humongous mischief and treachery. Therefore, my motivation for attempting to write on the Brazil issues is to bring remarkable clarity to the issues and perpetually cure the malice with verifiable facts.

As far as I can remember, the fabricated stories against Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah started three (3) months before the 2014 World Cup. Even before the GFA could submit its budget to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to be forwarded to Cabinet through the Chief of Staff for approval, there was so much hullaballoo about Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah squandering or embezzling World Cup funds.

All his explanations of his inability to speak to a budget that had not yet been presented to him and efforts to restrain the media from engaging in such prejudice fell on deaf ears.

How a Minister of State can divert funds from a budget that was yet to be presented and approved is a question only his detractors can answer. It defies simple logic and standard procedure, yet such baseless allegations were aggressively pushed and allowed to fester.

Later when the budget was presented and approved, the minister held a press conference to give the details of the budget through Microsoft PowerPoint Presentations, yet the attacks continued unabated.

What is surprising though is that these attacks seem to be well coordinated and structured to achieve the maximum damaging effect. The amazing aspect is that in all these, his side of the story has been deliberately ignored or given very little attention, whiles the lies have rather been amplified and given unbridled prominence.

One of the funniest allegations carried in some newspapers is that Hon. Afriyie-Ankrah was diverting the World Cup funds in order to build a war chest to contest President John Mahama as flag bearer in the NDC presidential primaries in the run up to the 2016 elections – an allegation that was and is still totally untrue. Only God knows the motivation for these kinds of attacks...

Other sections of the media were calling for his removal from the Youth and Sports Ministry based on the ridiculous excuse that in the previous World Cups, the Minister under whose tenure the team qualified was not the same minister who led the team into the tournament. Clearly, this bitter anti-Afriyie-Ankrah agenda was laced with a lot of malice.

In the midst of all these deliberate provocations and malicious publications, Afriyie-Ankrah kept his usual cool and focused on the task ahead – mobilizing resources for the World Cup.

HISTORY & BACKGROUND OF 2014 WORLD CUP

There were over 2,000 supporters who were fully sponsored and airlifted to both Germany 2006 and South Africa 2010 by government.

Besides, the Organizing Committee for the 2010 World Cup was given a seed money of GHC 3,000,000 (30 billion old cedis) for preparations before the tournament.

THE WORLD CUP SAGA AND MORE LIES

However, in the 2014 Brazil World Cup, the government took a decision not to sponsor supporters to the tournament with state funds as was done in previous editions.

This was at a time that the cedi was experiencing a steep decline with huge disadvantages to businesses.

Therefore, government had to cut costs across board, hence the decision not to sponsor supporters to Brazil

As the then Minister for Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, who had been with the team throughout the qualifying series; and having seen the positive impact of the supporters on the team, made a strong case and sought permission from His Excellency the President to raise funds from corporate organizations and philanthropic individuals to airlift supporters to Brazil.

A team was then constituted made of a broad spectrum of professionals who worked diligently and assiduously. Through creativity, innovation and ingenuity, and with the help of the World Cup Ambassadors, the then Minister raised GHC 4.5 Million (45 billion old cedis) from philanthropic individuals and corporate organizations to send supporters to Brazil.

In the midst of all these deliberate provocations and malicious publications, Afriyie-Ankrah kept his usual cool and focused on the task ahead – mobilizing resources for the World Cup.

THE WORLD CUP SAGA AND MORE LIES

1. That his wife was awarded a juicy contract as the sole caterer preparing food for supporters in Brazil. These baseless allegations have been proven to be absolutely false. The proceedings of the World Cup Commission clearly showed that neither the minister nor any member of his family had anything to do with the catering.

As a matter of fact, there was an Events, Grounds and Logistics Committee with its own chairman, which screened over thirteen (13) caterers through a transparent process based on experience, cost, ability to pre-finance, tax clearance, employee health clearance certificate, among other others, after which three (3) caterers were selected.

So why were some mischievous elements making the untruthful claim that the minister’s wife was the caterer selected for the tournament?

2. That Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah’s mother was also alleged to have been supplying Black Stars’ replica jerseys. It turned out that his mother who is a 74-year old pensioner, lives in London and had absolutely nothing to do with the World Cup organization.

She was equally shocked to hear her name being bandied around all over mainstream and social media. At this point, one wonders why such wicked lies would be told against the minister... The answer is not farfetched.

3. That the supporters were hosted / lived in bad conditions in Brazil. The supporters were reported to have only one toilet facility at the camp and had to queue for long hours just to attend to nature’s call. To make this wicked falsehood look authentic, a picture was taken of supporters who were in a queue for their buffet lunch and extensively circulated on social media as those queuing to use a toilet facility. That was how low some people were prepared to descend just to succeed in waging a dirty media campaign against Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah.

In fact, not only did the supporters have a decent place to camp; the camp facility could house up to one thousand (1,000) people comfortably so it was not a problem at all to host all the six hundred and ninety-six (696) core supporters there.

The supporter’s camp had adequate facilities including a spacious dining hall, with a large swimming pool, all kinds of modern indoor games and other recreational facilities. That notwithstanding, the supporters stayed in air-conditioned rooms with decent toilet facilities and no supporter cleaned his/her room since there were enough cleaners to change sheets and keep the rooms clean every day!

Also, there were fully air-conditioned, luxurious buses at the disposal of the supporters who wanted to go shopping or sight-seeing. Indeed, the camp was a home away from home for the supporters.

At the same time that the supporters were enjoying themselves and taking full advantage of these decent, modern facilities, the Ghanaian media back home was buzzing with allegations of bad treatment being meted out to the supporters in Brazil.

To ascertain the veracity of these allegations, the Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Youth and Sports, led by the Chairman, Hon. Woyome and the Minority Ranking Member for Youth and Sports, Hon. Agambila embarked upon a fact finding mission to the supporters’ camp in Brazil. The MPs went to the camp with camera men from GTV and TV3 and they were shocked to find out that all the negative stories being reported back home were complete fabrications – again, another proof of a dirty anti-Afriyie-Ankrah agenda.

When the video evidence was presented at the Commission, the Commissioners were visibly surprised to find out that so many untruths had been peddled about the supporters’ welfare. So, one would ask, if available HARD FACTS supported by incontrovertible documentary evidence was available, why did some people decide to put out deliberate falsehood against the minister? What effect was the untrue negative reportage supposed to achieve.