We inherited a debt of GHC 51 million - Isaac Asiamah

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Isaac Kwame Asiamah has revealed that he and his team inherited a debt of GH? 51 million at the ministry when they took over in February last year.

He said the indebtedness of the Sports Ministry was a clear indication that there was misappropriation of funds and poor management by the previous administration.

Mr. Asiamah who was speaking at his first meeting with the press after a year in office said, it took some creative initiatives by his team to enabled the Ministry generate enough fund to facilitate the recent projects being handled by the ministry like the renovation of the Azumah Nelson Sports Complex.

“We are making sure that now there is that transparency in the way we manage our resources. That is why when I came and I saw the fat amount of money being spent on hotel accommodation for coaches I was upset.

So we can spend as much as thirty three thousand dollars, eight thousand dollars per month on accommodation. Really? This can’t happen. Let’s put a stop to this rot and we have done just that.

We have put up a residence for our coach and it’s going to be for both present and future coaches. But when we came there was nothing at the Ministry of Youth and Sports. In fact, the account was negative. We even had debts to pay. We are working hard and we are fixing all that ".

The sports minister also hinted that measures have been put in place to ensure that players or athletics representing the country are only paid in the local currency and with cheques.

“We all recall that embarrassment our country had to endure after transporting money on a plane to pay footballers and because of that we have started implementing the recommendations laid out in the white sheet. So now players are only paid in Ghana cedis, not dollars and nobody will be given physical cash. Bonuses will also be paid in cedis. What happened years ago, must never happen again.”