For the past few weeks, the question I have been asking myself is: ?What is wrong with Ghanaian officials?.

My troubles started when I decided to apply for tickets to watch Ghana play at the World Cup in Germany through the Ghana Football Association. I thought I had struck gold when my name appeared in the list of successful applicants. The following week (28th of April 2006), I went to the bank and paid for the 2 tickets. Information on the GFA website indicated that tickets would be sent to the successful applicant?s mailing address, which were to be included in the payment instructions at the bank, so towards the end of May, I became worried about the lack of information regarding when I would get my tickets. I then phoned the GFA office in Accra and was told that the tickets would be sent to the Ghana High Commission in London so that applicants can collect them with some proof of payment.

I contacted the Ghana High Commission on the 27th of May and was shocked to hear that the GFA had only sent 34 tickets to London and that mine was not one of them.

Upon receiving such shocking news I phoned a friend of mine in Accra to check at the GFA office to find out what was going on and there too I was told my name is not on their list. The bank has also confirmed that they transferred the money to the GFA account at the First Atlantic Merchant Bank in Accra on the 2nd of May 2006.

My friend managed to get the telephone number of a guy in Germany called Francis and some one else in London. Now to make matters worse, this Francis guy never picks up his phone, and he is the one who is supposed to have the list of individuals who have paid for their tickets. It is either engaged or on voicemail.

Based on the information I got from Accra, I phoned this other guy in London (he is now coordinating with the High Commission in London to resolve this issue) who asked me to fax him the confirmation of my payment, which I did on the 28th of May.

Since then I have been phoning the Ghana High Commission on a daily basis to find out what is going on, but on each occasion, I am told that they are waiting for information from the GFA.

Now my question is: who are these GFA officials and why can?t they handle the simple task of distributing tickets to people who have paid for them? I have been told that there is a lot of British based Ghanaians in the same situation that I find myself in.

The World Cup starts tomorrow and at the time of writing this piece, I have not got my tickets. The worst part of it is that I have even booked my flights for the 2 matches and also booked a hotel in Nuremberg for the final group game.

Information gathered from my friend in Accra indicates that most of the GFA officials have left Ghana, following the team on their friendly matches, with two young ladies left in Accra to answer queries. And I bet you they are claiming the usual per diems while doing nothing to uplift the name of Ghana. Friends in Germany have also told me of similar problems regarding this ticket issue and I am beginning to wonder what has gone wrong with our officials. I doubt whether our Togolese or Ivorian counterparts have had similar problems with their tickets. No wonder some Ghanaians in Germany have decided to boycott the games.

Our whole systems are rotten to the core and I strongly believe we need a very drastic attitude change. Most government officials, including ministers of state do not seem to know what customer service and service delivery is all about. All that they care about is their selfish interests without regard to the consequences of their actions.

In fact at times like this it makes me ashamed of being a Ghanaian.

Sam Appiah, London swappiah@yahoo.com