You’re undermining the sports minister – PAC Chairman censures NSA boss

The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, James Klutse Avedzi on Monday, February 5, 2023, accused the Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Professor Peter Twumasi of undermining the authority of his sector minister, Mustapha Ussif.

The accusation came up when the chairman sought answers on the status of the Central Regional Director of the NSA, Tieku Alexander who he noted had been transferred from Cape Coast to the Eastern Region but had failed to honour the transfer.

Explaining the events leading to the transfer of Mr Tieku, the Minister for Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif said he called for the regional director’s transfer after he had defied his orders in granting access to a team sent to Cape Coast to repair the grass at the stadium.

“The transfer was necessitated because of certain events that took place before the Black Stars World Cup qualification. There was an Independence Day celebration and because of the officers who were to prepare the place and the students coming to march on the pitch, the pitch will be affected.

"I got an expert of pitch maintenance officer, then I made a recommendation to the director general, that the director general should ensure that once that Independence Day celebration is done, we get more hands in addition to the original people who are maintaining the pitch so that we can put the pitch in shape for the match to be able to take place,” the minister told the committee.

He stated that the pitch maintenance expert from Right to Dream Academy arrived at Cape Coast to carry out his duty but was denied access by the regional director despite his intervention in the matter.

“The young man came to Cape Coast and when he went to the regional director, the regional director said that he had not received instructions from the director general and because of that he wouldn’t allow the man to go there.

“Then I personally called him, I said listen, I am the Minister for Sports, I directed the director general to get this young man to help those who are already working there because I’ve identified him to be very a very good person.

"Then I called the director general to say I have called your regional director, the young man is there, so, make sure that he gives him access to support them to support them to put the place in shape because in the next two weeks we will be playing a match.

"All the instructions I gave, they did not take those instructions. Then it became a very big problem and we had to reschedule the match to Kumasi,” he said.

The minister explained that he later called for a meeting where he issued the instruction for Mr Tieku’s transfer in response to the “disrespect” of disobeying his instructions.

“I gave instructions and those instructions were not taken,” he added.

In his defence, Mr Tieku argued that the transfer letter he received had a heading which indicated that he had been transferred to the head office but the body of the letter showed he was being moved to the Eastern Region.

According to him, he later sought clarification from the director general who asked him to stay and continue serving in Cape Coast.

Despite confirming signing the transfer letter, Prof Twumasi told the committee that he had further directed the regional director to stay on due to some matches that were to be played at Cape Coast.

“I asked him to support the home matches that we were playing there because it was very critical. We needed to honour those home matches and at the time it required a lot of attention and somebody very much experienced until we rectify the issue that he raised,” he justified.

Mr Twumasi described the situation as a complete misunderstanding and not a case of disrespecting the minister.

After further interrogating the director general of the NSA, the committee chairman concluded that Prof Twumasi had sidestepped the minister’s instructions despite issuing Mr Tieku’s transfer letter and gone ahead to instruct the regional director to continue serving at Cape Coast.

“You are not actually respecting the minister at all; you are actually undermining the minister. It is not good. No, Mr Twumasi it is not good,” the chairman said.

While noting the similar occurrences with Mr Twumasi’s appearances before the committee, the chairman directed that Mr Tieku move to the Eastern Region with immediate effect in fulfilment of the transfer letter.

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