[ 2012-05-03 ]

Maputo report indicts Worlanyo Agrah, Adorkor
The report of the Maputo All Africa Games chaired
by Nii Adotey Din Barima has revealed a scathing
verdict on the leadership of the National Sports
Authority (NSA) led by Mr. Worlanyo Agrah and also
the Chief Sports Development Officer of the
authority, Erasmus Adorkor.

The committee was set up after the embarrassment
the Ghanaian team went through in the Mozambican
capital during last year's All Africa Games when
the team faced accommodation and accreditation
problems due to the inefficiency of the NSA.

Below is the full report of the committee sighted
by Citi News:

SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS
THE SPORTS COUNCIL’S VIEW OF THE CRISIS
1. The Committee rejects outright the attempted
justifications propagated by senior employees of
the National Sports Council that the temporal
proximity of the Unity Games to the All Africa
Games, and the absence of a viable GOC for almost
two and half years were mainly responsible for the
problems the Council encountered in planning for
the All Africa Games. The Committee also rejects
the notion that Government was late in releasing
funds for the Games. This is because the evidence
shows that the National Sports Council only
submitted a budget to Government on 9th August
2011, and Government approved the budget on 12th
August 2011. Indeed, the Committee believes that
the multiplicity of problems experienced by Team
Ghana at the Games ould have been avoided with
better planning, greater concern about the welfare
of the youth of Ghana who were being sent to
Maputo to represent the nation, more competent
management of the processes, greater concern about
deriving value for money in the procurement
processes, and a more functional organization. As
things unfolded the Committee found it difficult
to eliminate the theory that the leadership of the
Sports Council preferred a more chaotic
organization that allowed for expenditures.

ABSENCE OF INTERNATIONAL GAMES COMMITTEE WAS
DELIBERATE
2. The Committee found no reason why the
traditional International Games Committee was not
set up, as it was for the Commonwealth Games, a
couple of years prior. The absence of the
International Games Committee allowed the control
of the entire procurement of the various items
needed for the Games to fall into the hands of a
few individuals in the leadership of the National
Sports Council.

NSC BOARD SIDELINED
3. The Committee also finds that although the
Board of the National Sport Council was actively
involved in the planning of the Unity Games, even
to the extent of drawing up contract
specifications, the same Board was completely
sidelined in the organization of the All Africa
Games.

BREACH OF PROCUREMENT AND RULES
4. The Committee finds that the management of the
procurement rules and public funds was not in
accordance with the Procurement Act 2003 (Act
663). On several occasions, management exceeded
the limits allowed it excessively.

5. Power was so highly centralized in the hands of
a few individuals in the NSC leadership that it
was virtually impossible to check the abuses of
the procurement rules. The Chief Executive
single-handedly awarded Royal Derby Tours a
contract worth US$620,000, to lift over 200
athletes and officials to Maputo for the All
Africa Games. He also awarded Kwashie Tailors a
contract worth GH66,000.00 cedis to sew suits for
205 athletes and officials. Furthermore, he
awarded Trafix Catering Service a contract to feed
an undisclosed number of athletes and officials
for an undisclosed number of days at an
undisclosed unit price. In the end, the contractor
presented an invoice for GH92,265.88 cedis which
was paid instantly without anybody in authority
asking any questions. Again, Romku Ventures was
contracted to provide hostel accommodation for
camping at the cost of GH62,850.00 cedis, which
exceeded the number of athletes and officials
specified in the contract letter.

6. Clearly, the Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663) was
flagrantly flouted on several occasions. In most
of these cases, t the very least, the effort could
have been made to request estimates from three
companies and then the best one picked to give
Ghana the best value for money. In the particular
case of the air tickets, the fare almost doubled
because the contractor selected was unable to
pre-purchase the tickets at the first price they
were quoted. The irony is that while the fare was
almost-doubling, it also turned out that Team
Ghana did not get confirmed seats, hence the mass
confusion at airports in Ghana, South Africa and
Maputo, on all legs of the journey. An earlier
purchase would have save Ghana considerable amount
of money and also yielded confirmed seats to
enable Team Ghana make the trip to Maputo and back
in a more dignified manner.

NO CONTRACT SPECIFICATION AND DOCUMENTS
The Committee finds that there was no contract
specification, as well as contract documents for
any of the contracts awarded by the National
Sports Council. Some of the documents presented to
the Committee were either after-thoughts or
outright fabrications. This means that there was
no standard or quality of service, not even
minimum requirements like unit price, etc. The
Committee believes the absence of any contract
specification only partly explains the
sub-standard nature and poor quality service
delivered by almost all the contractors.

NO CONTRACT SUPERVISION
The Committee was shocked to discover that having
awarded the contracts, no one in the establishment
of the National Sports Council carried out the
basic task of monitoring and supervision to ensure
that the contracts were delivered according to
acceptable standards.

CORRUPTION IN THE AWARD OF CONTRACTS
The Committee came to the conclusion that the
procurement of goods and services was very
inappropriate, and that the system needs to
undergo a thorough shake up.

ENTITY TENDER COMMITTEE
The Committee finds that the Entity Committee,
which is an internal body with only two external
representatives, turns out to be operationally an
appendage of the leadership of the National Sports
Council. The membership of the Entity Committee is
dominated by people in the management of the NSC
and for that matter it made them incapable of
independent evaluation and assessment.

The Committee also finds that very often the
Entity Committee lacked the expertise and
competence required to make technical decisions.

The Committee finds that Mr. Silas Attipoh did not
attend the Entity Committee meeting on 12th
October 2011, but yet he was paid a sitting
allowance he was not entitled to.

UNDERMINING OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES AND
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
The Committee finds that the entire organizational
structure of the National Sports Council was
undermined in the way its administrative processes
were executed and its administrative rules
flouted. The Chief Executive Officer, in almost
all the contractual and financial transactions,
made decisions and expected his subordinates to
carry out his instructions without putting these
instructions in writing in the form of memos, as
is the standard practice in the public service.

The Committee finds that certain departments of
the National Sports Council which should have been
involved in the planning and organization of the
All African Games were left out entirely. For
example, the Protocol Officer, Mr. Patrick
Agordzor, was totally excluded from the
organization of the Games, although normally he
would be the one going to the airport, dealing
with the embassies, travel and tour companies,
etc. Mr. Elletey, the General Secretary for
Badminton and Disabled Sports was put in charge of
travel operations, an area which is definitely not
his area of expertise. A typical case of square
pegs in round holes. The Committee could only
surmise that the only probable reason why the
leadership of any organization would tolerate such
a situation regards personal loyalty, because the
alternative explanation would be that it created
the opportunity to enhance personal profiteering.

The Committee finds Mr. Ellertey to be an
untruthful person, and too unreliable to be
retained by the National Sports Council. He lied
to the Committee several times in order to protect
his bosses, and anytime he was found out he
stopped answering questions from the Committee. In
fact the last time he appeared before the
Committee, the Chairman of the Committee asked him
to help the Committee calculate the cost of
feeding athletes and officials in camp based on
Table 1. Mr. Ellertey flatly refused to undertake
the assignment and has to date not deemed it
imperative to carry out the task.

The Committee believes that given the extent of
managerial incompetence, institutionalized
corruption and organization rot that is going on
at the National Sports Council, it is only a
‘roots and branch’ shake up of the entire setup
that will rid the organization of these ills.

FAILINGS OF THE CHEF DE MISSION
Mr. Erasmus Adorkor was the main cause of the
accreditation problems experienced by Team Ghana
in Maputo. He failed woefully to meet deadlines
set for Chefs de Mission to complete the
accreditation process electronically, which would
have guaranteed that Team Ghana had
pre-accreditation tags before entering Mozambique.


The Committee finds that visa fees for entering
Mozambique were waived for all participating
countries. However, because Team Ghana had not
complied with the pre-accreditation requirements
Mr. Adorkor engaged in unnecessary and needless
spending: $1,320.00 on visa fees; $1,750.00 on
feeding; and another $538.00 on feeding, all as a
result of lack of accreditation.

The Committee finds that Mr. Adorkor was negligent
in booking Paradise Lodge: first, for not seeing
the rooms before booking; and second, for keeping
the reservations for the 10 rooms for 10 days
without putting the rooms to good use or letting
go of them. By not doing so, the National Sports
Council lost $900.00.

POOR INFORMATION FLOW
Mr. Adorkor failed to relay information concerning
the Games to both athletes and officials
travelling to the Games. All Chefs de Mission were
supplied dossiers that contained information
needed the various sporting disciplines for the
Games. Yet, Mr. Adorkor got these dossiers and
kept them to himself without sharing them with
athletes and officials going to Maputo.

The Committee finds that Mr. Adorkor failed to
comply with the requirement that each country was
supposed to inform COJA of its arrival 30 days
before time. As a result no Ghanaian group was met
at the Maputo Airport by a reception party.

PAYMENT OF ALLOWANCES
The Committee also finds that the National Sports
Council obtained money from Government to pay the
Ghanaian contingent for 22 days, but then paid
them for 18 days only.

The Committee finds that the Vice-President of the
Ghana Taekwondo Association, Mr Chris Essilfie,
was not paid his per diem allowance of $500.00
which was the first tranche paid to all Presidents
of sports associations and/or their
representatives.

NON-UTLIZATION OF FUNDS
The Committee finds that out of a total sum of
GH356,725.00 cedis voted by Government for the
purchase of general kitting for athletes and
officials, not one pesewa was spent or utilized
for that purpose. Thus, Ghanaian athletes and
officials went to the Games without branded or
national wear supplied by the National Sport
Council. Nigeria, for example, came to the Games
with at least four different uniforms, not to
mention straw hats, caps, which had all been
branded in national colours.

The Committee also finds that out of an amount of
GH185,925.00 cedis the Government voted for the
purchase of kits, equipment, and accessories for
the needs of individual sporting disciplines
participating in the Games, only GH44,000.00 was
spent on three sports associations, leaving many
associations without any kits and accessories.

The Committee finds that the President of the
Badminton Association, Mr. Nestor Percy Galley,
spent $150.00 of his own money in Maputo to
re-string rackets and further bought seven new
rackets for his players at the cost of $150.00
each. He also paid $100.00 for the one night he
spent at the Paradise which he should not have
paid, thus making a total sum of $1,300.00 that he
should not have had to pay out of pocket.

OVER-PAYMENT TO TRAFIX CATERING SERVICE
The Committee finds that the Managing Director of
Trafix Catering Service, Madam Bella Ahu, was
overpaid to the tune of GH48,804.00 cedis. She
presented an invoice for feeding 200 athletes and
officials for 20 days at the cost of GH20.00 per
day, totaling GH80,000.00 cedis. The invoice also
included GH231.20 for water plus 15% VAT of
GH12,034.00, all of which amounted to GH92,265.88
cedis. However, by our calculations per
information received from the General Secretaries
about their respective teams, Trafix could
actually have fed only 148 athletes and officials
over different days that numbered fewer than 20 in
the case of virtually all the teams. Because there
was actually no contract document stating the unit
price per plate, the Committee reverted to the
feeding cost of GH18.00 per day, which Trafix had
charged the National Sports Council for the Unity
Games.

QUALITY OF TAILORING SERVICE BY KWASHIE TAILORS
The Committee finds that Kwashie Tailor & Dry
Cleaners failed to supply 205 suits to Team Ghana
by 28th August 2011 as stipulated in the contract
letter. Because of the late delivery of the suits
Team Ghana could not use the suits for the purpose
for which they were intended.

The Committee also finds that there was no
supervision of the tailoring job undertaken by
Kwashie Tailors, because if the job had been
supervised it would have been known that only 70
suits had been delivered by the time Team Ghana
departed to Maputo. The last suits were delivered
on 19th October 2011, that is to say, a whole
month after the Maputo Games had officially ended
on 18th September.

QUALITY OF TRAVEL SERVICE BY ROYAL DERBY TOURS
The Committee finds Royal Derby Tours to have
provided a very poor quality service to the
National Sports Council when the latter contracted
the company to airlift Team Ghana to Maputo for
the All Africa Games. The main reason the company
provided the poor quality service was because it
did not have the money to secure the airline seats
the National Sports Council had ordered.

The Committee finds Royal Derby Tours to be liable
for the trauma experienced by 16 Team Ghana
passengers who got stranded, and in distress, in
South Africa for three days, and who ended up
having to travel to Maputo by road.

The Committee finds Royal Derby Tours liable for
the luggage of the Disabled Sports athletes and
officials which was left behind in South Africa
for a good one week. The least Royal Derby Tours
could have done, knowing it was going to use
Oliver Tambo Airport as a transit airport for over
200 of its passengers many of whom Royal Derby had
not been able to secure through passage for, was
to have stationed one of its agents in
Johannesburg or negotiated with South African
Airlines, or another airline, to manage the
transit transactions for a fee. After all, this
was a very sizeable contract for almost
GH1,000,000 cedis.

The Committee finds that Mr. Erasmus Adorkor, the
Chef de Mission, failed to exercise appropriate
judgment by not using part of the $10,000 imprest
he had on him to alleviate the suffering of the
disabled athletes. Mr. Adorkor should have
arranged for the luggage of the disabled athletes
and officials to be airlifted from Johannesburg to
Maputo within a day or two of knowing about the
plight of ‘Disabled Team Ghana’. The disabled
athletes, without their wheelchairs could not
leave their place of lodging even to go for food;
tragically, after the first day their coach, who
was picking up food from the cafeteria for all the
athletes, was no longer allowed to do so by the
cafeteria officials.

POOR AUDITING
The Committee finds that the internal audit
department is part of a very disorganized system,
which would find it difficult to distance itself
from a charge of being corrupt. The primary
purpose of internal audit is to detect fraud. The
many documentation problems the Committee came
across all had stamps of approval of the Acting
Internal Auditor on them, meaning that he the
internal auditor had approved the transactions.

NON-PARTICIPATION IN OPENING AND CLOSING
CEREMONIES
The Committee finds that Team Ghana did not
partake in both the opening and closing ceremonies
for a variety of reasons. First, the suits for the
Games were not delivered on time by Kwashie
Tailors. Second, the participating sporting
disciplines had either not arrived at the Games at
the time of the opening ceremony because of the
many travel problems, or had left the Games early
to avoid the hustle and rush of the departing
teams at the time of the closing ceremony.

THE MISSING $32,100
The Committee finds that Mr. Adorkor should be
held liable for the sum of $32,100, which Mr. Agra
persuaded Mr. Yiriwanu Sambo Aminu, an Accounts
Officer at the Ministry of Youth & Sports, to give
to Mr. Adorkor, ostensibly as ‘football’s
contribution to Ghana’s overall participation fees
of $150,000.00. There was only one payment of
$150,000.00 and no other payment. Mr. Adorkor’s
claim that there was an invoice of $182,100.00
still awaits corroboration, because no such
invoice has been seen by anybody.

ACCOMMODATION CRISIS
The Committee finds that majority of athletes and
officials lived at the Games Village. The
accommodation crisis at the Games Village
compelled the two football teams to relocate to
Hotel Libombos in Namaacha, a town 70 kilometers
from Maputo. The Committee also finds that the
accommodation crisis was so severe that every inch
of space in the apartments allocated to Team Ghana
was in use, with the exception of toilets and
bathroom. Furthermore, the Committee finds it
disconcerting that in a few instances some male
and female athletes of some disciplines in Team
Ghana were compelled by the crisis to sleep on
mattresses in the same room, and particularly when
this concerned a 14-year old female.

BUDGETING AND OVERSPENDING
The Committee finds that a large portion of the
budget for sports ends up not going where it is
supposed to and that unless Government takes steps
to arrest this situation it would have a negative
impact on the development of sports in the
country.

The Committee finds that a common feature of the
budget for the All African Games was continuous
over-spending of monies voted by Government
without permission or explanation.

AUTONOMY OF THE SPORTS ASSOCIATIONS
The Committee finds that the relationship between
the Sports Associations on the one hand and the
National Sports Council and the General
Secretaries on the other hand should be redefined
to give the sports associations ‘real’ autonomy to
bring the General Secretaries under the umbrella
of the associations.

The Committee finds that Ghana Swimming
Association led by Mr. Theophilus Edzie
over-exaggerated its ratings in the run-up to the
Maputo Games in order to use that as a platform to
achieve international recognition in its battle
with a rival organization led by Mr. Issah
Ibrahim.

PATRIOTISM AND SENSE OF DUTY The Committee finds
that it was the unique sense of duty and personal
effort of Mr. Gabriel Owusu Ansah that saved Ghana
from national disgrace and humiliation.

NO SERVICE STANDARDS
The Committee finds that there are no service
standards by which the conduct of employees of the
National Sports Council can be measured, and by
which they can be held accountable.

MR ADORKOR SHOULD BE HELD LIABLE FOR THE 17 KENTE
CLOTHS
The Committee finds Mr. Adorkor negligent in
collecting 17 men Kente cloths from the
Storekeeper of the National Sports Council and not
returning same to him for the past one and a half
years. Mr. Adorkor should be held personally
liable.

TRAVEL MATTERS OWED 18,200 AND DENIED A SHARE OF
THE MAPUTO TICKETS
The Committee finds that there is documentary
evidence to indicate that Travel Matters supplied
13 return tickets to the National Sports Council
of the cost of $18,200.00 to enable the Ghana
Athletics Association travel to Dakar to take part
in a competition. The tickets were ordered by Mr.
Erasmus Adorkor on the morning of 13th May 2010
when the team was due to travel. When the Al
Africa Games was coming up Travel Matters was
promised a share of the tickets in order to enable
the travel company to defray some of its arrears,
but this did not materialize.

Source - Citifmonline

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