2019 AFCON: I’ll reappear before parliament, if I’m found guilty of embezzlement – Asiamah

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Isaac Kwame Asiamah says he will not hesitate to re-appear before parliament to give clarity on the controversial expenditure at the 2019 African Cup of Nations in Egypt, if the need be.

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Isaac Kwame Asiamah in July, presented Parliament with an itemised breakdown detailing Ghana’s expenditure at the 2019 African Cup of Nations in Egypt.

He told parliament Ghana spent 4.5 million dollars during this year’s AFCON tournament in Egypt, while an amount of $6.3 million was budgeted for the entire tournament.

Ranking Member on the Sports Committee of Parliament, Kwabena Woyome and other critics alike have said for the sake of clarity the Minister must appear before the committee to respond to the germane questions raised by the public vis a vis the details of the said Budget.

” Now that we’ve come back and the presentation eventually got done yesterday on the floor of parliament after pushing harder, the figures quoted by the Minister appears quite colossal, but has not spoken much because he’s given nine cost centres in the 4.5 million dollar expenditure. What he did was bulking all the expenditure and giving us total…what will make it clearer for all of us to even give a better debate on this which is so key and important is allocating how much was allotted to each of the cost centres he mentioned in his briefing.

“…People are demanding answers to questions that is why the committee has written inviting the Minister to come before the committee so that we can continue with our oversight for and on behalf the people of this country so that there will be openness and transparency,” the lawmaker told Kasapa 102.5 FM months back.

In a Meet-the-Press section on Wednesday, November,04,2019, Mr Asiamah said for now, the Budget is being scrutinized by the requisite state authorities insisting parliament will still call him back to answer more questions, should a case of embezzlement be established against the Ministry.

“…When I’m found guilty of every expenditure, I’ll come back to parliament” he told Journalists at the Meet-the-Press series.