Sports Ministry to work with GFA to monitor inflow of funds

Maputo (Mozambique), Sept. 17, GNA - The Ministry of Youth and Sports is to work with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) to monitor the financial inflows of the football controlling body as a measure to cut down the huge government expenditure in the sector.

"This is to identify their strengths and weaknesses in finances to enable the Ministry to make appropriate strategic financial arrangements with regards to the various national teams," Clement Kofi Humado the sector Minister told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) Sports in an interview on Saturday in Mozambique.


"It is not going to be governmental interference but collaboration between the Ministry, the Public Interest Committee (PIC) and the Emergency Committee of the GFA," the Minister stated.


According to him, a lot of pressure was coming from the national teams as far as funds were concerned which brought untold difficulties to the disbursement of the national kitty.


He added that such pressure when yielded to, denied the nation of the opportunity to develop other sectors such as education, health, and technology.


"If I show you the budget for the various national teams, you will marvel they are just overbearing on the finances of the nation,” Mr Humado added.

He said the move if initiated would enable the nation to know how much was derived from sponsorship and other sources by the GFA which would provide adequate information for future budget consideration.


The Minister, however, noted that the initiative would require dialogue with the GFA as well as the general public before it would be implemented.


He suggested 2013 as the possible implementation date for the proposal.


Mr Humado, however, commended the GFA for a healthy working relationship with the Ministry, saying "I think Kwasi Nyantakyi (GFA Boss) had been collaborating well with the Ministry anytime we need his assistance".


"He is always on hand to provide information and the GFA as a body has also improved drastically in all aspects and they must continue," he noted.

The Minister said the exercise would not be limited to the GFA but other associations of the various sporting disciplines under the National Sports Authority (NSA).


Kofi Humado said some of the associations took sponsorships and grants from companies and their international federations without the notice of the NSA and the Ministry.


He said two associations recently took funds from their mother bodies and later benefited from the NSA for the same event, which he described as duplication of funding.


"These are some of the duplications we want to avoid, so we can control flow and management of funds for sports development," he stressed.


He expressed the hope that all constituent bodies under the sector would corporate with the Ministry for successful implementation of the proposal.