Mr. Kwadjo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Youth, Education and Sports (YES) on Wednesday inspected more than 6,000 stadium chairs imported in 1999 for the renovation of the Accra and Kumasi Sports Stadiums.

The chairs numbering 6,504 had been at the Ports since 1999 thus allowing demurrage to accrue to 1,284,937,500 cedis which was waived by Mersk Shipping Line following the failure of the Ministry of Youth and Sports to make early clearance.

The Ministry however paid 27 million cedis for clearing and handling in addition to 422 million cedis as duty which enabled the chairs to be cleared from the port when the Auditor- General expressed concern about the delay which was incurring additional debt.

Briefing the press later, Mr. Baah-Wiredu said the 422 million cedis would be paid over a period of six months out of gate proceeds by the National Sports Council (NCS).

The minister expressed appreciation to Mersk Shiping Line, Customs and Exercise and Preventive Service, Auditor General and the Ministry of Finance for their cooperation in the exercise.

The minister expressed the need for the chairs to be fixed immediately at the stadiums so that their exact sitting capacity would be known to make their revenue generation computable.

Mr. Edward Dua Agyeman, the Auditor -General, said he was going to send a team of consultants to examine the quality of the chairs to determine whether they justify the cost.

He said two types of chairs were imported. These are the ordinary and the deluxe types which costs, 16 and 36 dollars respectively adding that the total cost of the chairs is 724, 000 dollars.