I have read, unsurprisingly, a so-called investigative result, which claimed to have “uncovered” Ghana’s “hidden” budget for the Black Stars’ disappointing campaign in the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Cote d’Ivoire.
In as much as I found the write-up, verbose and baseless, I was not surprised by the characteristic attempt by the author, Member of Parliament and former Minister of State in the erstwhile Mills/Mahama regimes, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, to sensationalise, and create an erroneous impression of misappropriation and corruption, when the so-called evidence he presented on his Facebook page, is as gaping as anything hollow one can imagine.
After reading the supposed expose three times, I did not get exactly what the Member of Parliament was seeking to communicate to the Ghanaian public.
However, the more I read, the clearer it was that he was merely embarking on his usual social media political expeditions.
If I may ask, Mr. Ablakwa, what exactly was he seeking to communicate?
That Ghana prepared a budget of US$8.5 million for the Afcon?
That the Ministry of Youth and Sports requested an advance payment of US$5 million from the Ministry of Finance from the approved budget? That Ghana’s total budget of $8.5 million was more than the expected prize money for the World Cup?
There is nothing wrong or incriminating about all these three questions, if your answers to them are in the affirmative, which they are, based on the MPs own write up.
Merely publishing a letter, from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, to the Ministry of Finance, duly requesting for part payment of a total budget sum approved, and trying to suggest criminal conduct, is a lazy and a shameful approach by a Member of Parliament to soil the reputation of a public officer.
Was it procedurally wrong for the Ministry of Youth and Sports to have written to the Finance Ministry, requesting for the release of some of the approved money, in line with what has been duly approved?
If Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa has any reason to suspect criminal conduct over the disbursement of the US$5 million requested, or any money released, there are legal and acceptable avenues to get to the bottom of it. You don’t launch a hypocritical political propaganda, especially when the presentation is hollow, baseless and sensational.
Okudzeto Ablakwa’s attempt to impugn corruption on the part of the Minister of Sports, and a fellow MP in the August House, because a budget of US$8.5 million, out of which US$5 million part payment was requested, is most unfortunate, to say the least.
As for his attempt to further impugn corruption because the total budget for the AFCON, is US$1.5 million more than the total prize money for the AFCON, is hypocritical, coming from a former Minister of State, whose government presented bigger budgets.
The management of a national football team, is not a matter of profit and loss, for the MP to make such ridiculous deductions and declare a loss. No one will fault him if he makes a case for financial prudence in the management of the Black Stars. But to simply make a blanket statement of a $1.5 million loss, because of excess budget over revenue, is to either expose his ignorance or hypocrisy, because this has been the usual practice, including by his own party and erstwhile government, especially for the African Cup of Nations.
In as much as I won’t fault any genuine call for prudent financial management, it is also important to note that in football, it is normal for teams, especially national teams, to spend far more than what a tournament offers as prize money (especially the Afcon), because when a team wins, there are more indirect and unquantifiable benefits, apart from the cash on offer. Countries normally spend more to qualify and prepare for the Afcon, and their total budgets, including what is approved for them for the main tournament, would normally be more than the Afcon prize money.
Does Okudzeto Ablakwa have an idea how the Ghanaian football ecosystem, tourism and the Ghanaian economy would be boosted if the Black Stars were to win the Afcon? The gains would surely be more valuable than the $7m prize money at stake.
For his information, the African Cup of Nations was not financially rewarding, until recently. There were no cash prizes on offer, yet countries, including Ghana, right from the days of our founding President, Kwame Nkrumah, did not opt out because there would be no profit. The country spent loads of money preparing.
The hypocrisy
During the 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2015 Afcons, which were played when Okudzeto Ablakwa was a Minister in the governments of John Mills and John Mahama, the Black Stars budgets for these tournaments were far more than the prize money on offer, yet OkudzetoAblakwa kept quiet.
What hypocrisy!
In 2015, under the government of John Mahama, in which Ablakwa Okudzeto was a Minister, the government prepared a whopping budget of US$15 million for the tournament, which far exceeded the meagre US$1.5 million prize money on offer.
Interestingly, the US$15 million budget for 2015 Afcon covered 6 rounds of matches, as the tournament had 16 teams, unlike now, which has 24 teams and the 7 rounds of matches which the budget covers. Again, for the same 2015 Afcon tournament, each member of the Black Stars was gifted a brand new Jeep, facilitated by the state, for placing second at the tournament.
My simple question is: where was Okudzeto Ablakwa when his then government approved a budget of US$15 million against a prize money of US$1.5 million? Did he also calculate the total value of the cars in addition to the budget of the tournament, against the prize money for placing second? This is legendary political hypocrisy!
Another hypocritical line in Okudzeto Ablakwa’s sensational, but utterly baseless exposè, was that government is spending on football when there are other social issues to tackle!
This is shocking, especially coming from a former Minister of a government which subjected Ghana to global ridicule by flying US$3 million on an airplane to Brazil in 2014, at a time the entire country had been plunged into fuel and energy crisis!
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, if you have deliberately forgotten, and your cohorts be reminded that vehicles and the general public used to form long queues during the Brazil 2014 World Cup to buy fuel, and there was also ‘dumsor’ all over, during the 2012, 2013 and 2015 Afcons, yet the Mahama government, of which you were part of, and defended, spent millions, which required a Commission of Enquiry to unravel some mysteries and some outrageous expenses, including buying coconuts at exorbitant prices.
Did you not see all these then? Or you have just found your voice because it is politically expedient for you to do so now? Up you your game, and treat your audience with some level of respect.
Your claim of having uncovered the Black Stars budget is nothing but propaganda! The budget you keep referring to, cannot be a classified document and you ought to know better as a Member of Parliament.
A document which has gone through different layers of approval processes, in different public offices for approval, from the GFA, to the Ministry of Sports, Chief of Staff’s office and then to the Ministry of Finance, surely, cannot be a classified document, for you to uncover.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports may have, for their own reasons, decided not to have disclosed the budget before the tournament, which I disagree, considering the enormous public interest in a Black Stars budget. For the sake of public interest and the promotion of transparency, I am for full disclosure of football budgets BEFORE a tournament. But failure to disclose, does not mean the Minister, or the Ministry has misappropriated money, as you, an Hon. Member of Parliament sought to portray.
How can an experienced, three-term Member of Parliament not know that a simple paper in Parliament can compel a Minister of State to account, and give the nation all necessary information. You rather decided to shelve your parliamentary responsibility, instead, chose to engage in a hollow conjecture on social media and a sensational publicity stunt for your own political agenda.
Successive Ministers of State, including Ministers from your NDC party and governments, have always been invited to account in parliament. The most recent being after Ghana’s participation in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The Minister of Youth and Sports, himself a Member of Parliament was summoned by Parliament to give a breakdown of the budget for the tournament and expenditure.
This is how responsible MPs should behave, not publishing a letter requesting for part payment of an approved budget, and creating baseless ‘hoo haa’ of criminal conduct without any evidence suggesting misappropriation.
Your so-called exposè, is nothing but cacophonous noise, laden with baseless conjecture and flowery words. It is merely political propaganda because if you check well, you will realise that you are pointing one finger at the present government, but the rest of your fingers are pointing at you and your erstwhile government.
What you did, by publishing a document that has already been exchanged between public offices, and presenting it as the result of some masterclass investigation, is akin to telling the world you have discovered that the sun will rise from the east tomorrow morning.
There is a difference between advocating for budget cuts for the Black Stars and being a hypocritical political propagandist, who only sees the “truth” because it is politically expedient to do so. What you are doing is the latter!
Source: Graphic.com.gh
