Two years after the co-hosting of the CAN 2000 African Nations Cup by Ghana and Nigeria, the Auditor General has now launched an enquiry into the controversy surrounding the supply of plastic chairs for the refurbishment of the Accra and Kumasi Sports stadiums.

The contracts for the refurbishment of the two stadiums were tainted with underhand dealings with accusations of conflict of interest. For instance, while the main contracts for the refurbishment of the stadiums were awarded to Arab Contractors of Egypt represented by Nana Brew Butler, a former GFA chairman, the supply of chairs were awarded to Rekoc, represented by Ade Coker, the immediate past GFA Vice Chairman. Coker who was a member of the Local Organising Committee was said to have used his influence to win the $724,000 contract for his company.

The award of the contracts was supervised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports under Enoch Teye Mensah.

The Auditor General’s probe will establish the role of the people involved in the scandalous awards and executions of the contracts.

Ade Coker’s name has been circulating in the sporting arena as one of the culprits in the stadium scandal.

While other companies submitted competitive quotations during the bidding, Rekoc which quoted $15 and $37 each for two different types of chairs was selected. Rekoc won the bid to provide the chairs at $37 each when a British company had quoted $16 for chairs of the same quality.

The shoddy contract was not limited to the fixing of the chairs. About 10,000 were left uncleared from the ports accumulating demurrage to the tune of over ?1.2 billion, which has fortunately, been waived by Maersk Shipping Line. The quality of the chairs was also questionable.