Barreto to refund $20,800 to Ghana

Accra, Oct. 23, GNA - Former Black Stars Coach Mariano Barreto is to refund to the Government of Ghana 13,800 dollars in addition to a penalty of 7,000 dollars for vacating his post in October 2004. The Portuguese national who was preparing the Senior National Team towards the World Cup Tournament in 2006, was granted a salary advance of 30,000 dollars in February 2005 for a two year contract, but vacated his post before the contract expired.

Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports confirmed this on Tuesday, when answering questions at the public hearing of Public Accounts Committee of Parliament in Accra. He said Ghana had honoured any monetary sanction imposed by the world football authority FIFA, but Mr Barreto was still flouting the ruling of FIFA to pay his debt.


"The Ministry would take the matter to court to compel Mr Barreto to pay his indebtedness to Ghana, " he added.


The Committee examining the Auditor General's Department report for 2005 said there was double payment of bills by two sports institutions to the management of Silicon Hotel in Kumasi.


Kumasi office of National Sports Council paid 449.60 Ghana cedis (4,496,000 cedis) to management of the hotel after Ghana Football Association had initially paid 448.50 Ghana cedis (4,485,000 cedis) for the same transaction in June 2004.


However, officials from the Ministry, GFA and NSC said management of the hotel had refused to refund the money.

The Committee expressed its disappointment over the deal, and rejected the excuse for the double payment as an oversight and noted that the problem had arisen from lack of effective internal control. It expressed its reservation on the payment of 6,060 Ghana cedis (60.6 million cedis) between July 2003 and June 2004 for airfare, hotel bills and local travelling expenses to Mr Yaw Boahene, a London-based Consultant for the maintenance of sports pitches without any consultancy agreement.


The audit report indicated that in 2004, the Sports Division of the Ministry paid more than 10,100 Ghana cedis (101 million cedis) through Mr Larry Attafuah, Special Assistant of the Minister for the supply of 1,000 leather footballs and 30 football pumps towards sports development, but only half of the consignment was supplied. Besides, there was a VAT component of 1,198.77 Euro, but no VAT receipt was produced after payment.


On education, the Auditor General's Report of 2004 stated that six teachers from Tema Municipal Directorate of Education who vacated their post were paid unearned salaries to the tune of 2,080 Ghana cedis (20.8 million cedis).


Officials from the Ministry told the Committee that a thorough review of the unearned salary revealed an amount of 2,790 Ghana cedis (27.9 million cedis) instead of the figure queried.


A breakdown of the refund of the unearned salary were, Mrs Rebecca Noye, 880 Ghana cedis (8.8 million cedis), Philomena Elala 97.7 Ghana cedis (977,000 cedis), Janet Terkpor 294 Ghana cedis (2.94 million cedis), Esther Abaka-Mensah, 456 Ghana cedis (4.56 million cedis) and Emmanuel Armah 47.4 Ghana cedis (474,389 cedis) and another person who had paid 880 Ghana cedis (8.8 million cedis).