'MOYS Planning Committee disorganised our plans'

Kenpong Travel and Tours (KT&T) has said the Planning Committee set up the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) to organise supporters to Brasil for the 2014 World Cup disorganised their plans for the supporters during the competition.

KT&T was one of the three Travel and Tours that was tasked by MOYS to airlift fans to Brasil to support the Black Stars.

Kofi Poku, Project Manager of KT&T told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, investigating the participation of the Black Stars in the World Cup, that but for the conduct of the planning committee all the supporters would have watched all the three matches of the Black Stars in Brasil.

According to Poku, though they did not do things right with regards to documentation, the committee made their work difficult adding that “they ran us into problems”.

Poku told the Commission that, his outfit had organised transportation and accommodation for supporters in Brasil, claiming the committee went behind them to organise their own transport and accommodation in Natal.

He said, his outfit was only informed of the arrangement by the Committee when they got to Brasil.

“I was at the Natal Airport with five buses to convey supporters to the hotel, only to be informed by Larry Acheampong – Special Assistant to the former Minister of Youth and Sports – Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, that he had arranged some buses for the fans.

“Mr Acheampong told me that, they had also arranged hotel accommodation for the fans, hence they would not use ours.

“I did not take it lightly. I confronted Fred Darko and he told me that, our buses were better than those organised by the committee and therefore the fans were asked to use ours, but they did not use our hotel,” he stated.

According to Poku, they incurred a cost of $40,000 due to the conduct of the Committee.

He explained that, the cost was as a result of the decision of the Planning Committee to change hotel of the supporters at the last minute without informing them.

Poku however stated that, they were not given any contract to organise internal flight for the fans.

He added that, their services ended after the match against United States of America (USA).