Adorkor fingers former Athletics boss over accounts

Accra, Sept. 22, GNA - Eramus Adorkor, former General Secretary of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA) has fingered the former Chairman, Sandy Osei Agyeman over the accounts sent to the International Association of Athletic Federation (IAAF).

The former General Secretary was said to have sent a stinking letter to the IAAF insisting a statement of accounts purported to have come from the GAA bearing his signature was a complete deception. Mr Adorkor said the altered 2008 Statement of Accounts which was re-sent to the IAAF last week by the former GAA chairman and bore his (Adorkor)'s signature was without his consent.

The letter chanced upon by the GNA Sports said "I write to inform you that I had since 1st June, 2009 ceased to be the General Secretary of GAA and therefore could not have prepared or written in any official capacity to the IAAF".

"Even when I was the Secretary, I never had access to any of the accounts of the Association. What that means is that the original document sent to the IAAF in March was not prepared by me. "This is deceit and fraudulent and I therefore humbly request that you disseminate this vital information to all offices as far as the IAAF setup is concerned."

IAAF citing an error made due to the currency conversion rate in the first account sent in March.

The latest account authorized by Osei Agyeman but bizarrely bore Adorkor's name claimed "accidentally, using a conversion rate of GH 1.00 cedis to US 1.50, the Ghana cedis component of the expenditure of 51,045.01 became 76,567.51 US dollars.

"This resulted in the overstated expenditure amount since the actual rate for 2008 was Gh. 1.00 cedis to US $ 1.00".

It would be recalled that the GAA misled the IAAF into believing the Association held its Congress in 2006 to merit a grant from the global body. A communiqu=E9 sent to the IAAF by then Chairman Mr Sandy Osei-Agyeman claimed the Association's constitution had been approved on February 15, 2006 at a Congress that never took place. The communiqu=E9 which included the supposed approved constitution was meant to qualify the country for an annual grant from the IAAF. With the IAAF now convinced by the "documentary" evidence, Ghana received unspecified grants for three years.

However, there are contradictory reports on the exact amount the country received, even though a statement of expenditure for the 2008 grant to the IAAF in the possession of the GNA Sports totaled 109,958.12 dollars. 22 Sept. 09