Money now flows to athletics

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has finally released Ghana's share of its annual grants to the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA).

Contrary to reports that the grants had been frozen due to the GAA's failure to submit the expenditure returns for the past year and for not organising regular competitions to serve the purpose of the grant, the delay in releasing the fund was rather caused by a restructuring that took place at the IAAF's outfit.

This also runs contrary to the widely held opinion, which has been confirmed by the immediate past chairman of the Africa Athletics Association (AAA), Mr. Lamin Diak at the AAA"s recent congress to the effect that Ghana's inactivity has caused the freezing of her share of the grant.

According to E. M. Charway, the Secretary General of the GAA, the delay in the release of the fund was not exclusive to Ghana, but rather it affected all affiliate bodies of the IAAF due to the reason provided above.

He disclosed that the IAAF has expressed great surprise at the news that the world body had frozen Ghana's share of the fund, adding "they wouldn't have done that without our knowledge."

The GAA secretariat has been accused of inefficiency and lack of administrative competence in the running of its affairs leading to the freezing of the grant. But with the arrival of the money, Mr. Charway says his outfit has been vindicated.

"It is heart-warming that the grant has finally been released, a confirmation of the fact that the GAA is not incompetent after all," he said.

He also intimated that the GAA's inability to organise or compete in several meetings during last year was hugely due to the unavailability of funds from government chest.

He gave an instance where after presenting the budget for the year's various programmes, a reply came three months after the start of the season.

"How can one then blame the association for incompetence when there are no funds to help the association undertake its programmes?" he queried.

Series of allegations have been peddled against members of the GAA especially the secretary general for gross incompetence, labelling him as dormant and it is believed that his transfer from the secretariat to the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) is a direct result of those allegations. Meanwhile, tension is looming between members of the various individual associations and the chief executive of the National Sports Council following the turmoil that prevailed over selection and accreditation of athletes and officials to the Manchester Commonwealth and All Africa Games in Tunisia.

Although officials at the various associations have remained tight-lipped over the issue, our investigations have revealed that a number of them are harbouring ill-feelings over various issues happening within the confines of the sports council.