Audio By Carbonatix
The Presidential Commission investigating Ghana's shoddy World Cup appearance has described as "strange" decision by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) not to submit the entire World Cup prize money to government.
Spokesperson to the Commission, Thomas Boakye told Joy News' Francisca Kakra Forson the GFA has disrespected their directives not to disburse the amount and they would take all that into consideration in their final recommendation to government.
The GFA entered into an agreement with government to pre-finance the cost of Ghana’s 2014 World Cup participation with a promise to pay back when they receive the World Cup Prize money.
In line with that agreement, the GFA returned an amount of $4,003,761.08 to government upon receipt of the prize money.
However, the World Cup Commission issued a directive to the GFA through the Sports Ministry demanding that the entire amount of $8 million be paid to government instead of $4 million until after the Commission is done with its investigations.
The GFA responded and with no ambiguities, stated the Commission has no authority to make any such requests.
But Thomas Boakye said "it's a bit strange the reaction by the Ghana Football Association that we lack those powers."
According to him, their initial directive to the GFA was misconstrued. He explained, the directive was for the GFA to keep the money in the original account into which it was paid by FIFA and not to disburse it.
He stated that the GFA disrespected its orders by disbursing half of the amount to government.
He said they therefore directed the government to keep the amount into an escrow account and not disburse it, a directive government has respected.
He found it difficult to understand why the GFA would not comply with same.
He said the Commission has as part of its terms of reference the responsibility to conduct forensic audits into all monies spent in relation to the World Cup.
He warned "every action and inaction" by the GFA has its implication and the Commission will take all that into consideration when presenting their recommendation.
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