The Ministry of Youth and Sports has applied to the Office of the President for an amount of US$70,388.4 to enable the senior national team, the Black Stars to travel to Freetown to play a World Cup qualifying match against the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone on May 6, 2001 but the Office of the President seems to have smelt a rat.

First the officials in charge did not even consult the Vice President who is now temporarily in charge of the Sports Ministry but applied straight to the Chief of Staff. The letter dated 23rd April 2001 breaks the expenditure down as follows:

AIRFARE

i) Accra/Freetown/Accra for 30 persons at $750 each (30x750)=$2,250.00

PTA

ii) 6 professional players at $2,300 each (6x2,300)=$13,800.00

PER DIEM

iii) Allowance for 18 players at $40 a day for 7 days

(18x7x40)=$5,040.00

iv) Allowance for 7 technical handlers at $60 a day for 7 days (7x7x60)=$2,940.00

v) 3 Government/GFA officials at $50.40 a day for 7 days (3x7x60.40)=$1,058.00

vi) Accountable imprest (medical, fuelling of bus, etc.)=$3,000.00

WINNING BONUS

i) 18 players at $2,000=$36,000.00

ii) Head Coach at $2,000=$2,000.00

iii) Assistant Coach at $1,500=$1,500

iv) Doctor at $1,200=1,200.00

v) Physio and welfare at $800 each ($800x2)=$1,600.00

The letter, which was signed by Dan Piime, Acting Chief Director requested that "the expenditure should be charged to Account NO.150-010-000-300-000 (Service Activity)".

The five foreign players were named as Duah Emmanuel, Preko Yaw, Ayew Kwame, Otto Addo and Appiah Stephen. A travel agency called Universal Travel and Tourist Services which is handling the travel arrangements presented the invoice for the tickets of the foreign players.

The Mallam Isa saga has been a painful lesson to the government with the zero tolerance for corruption and so as at Monday, April 30, the office of the Chief of Staff was scrutinising the request over and over paring down the figures to a tolerable level. If FIFA sanctions were not feared, in all probability, the match would have been skipped all together because it is one of those "heads you lose, tails you lose" matches. The issue of bringing down as many as five foreign players when local players could as well do the job is also being looked at. But what seems to have raised eyebrows the most has been the number of officials going along with the team. It seems to be at a ratio of two players to an official!

In the attachments to the Chief of Staff, the Chief Director conveniently left out the names of which officials had been nominated to go along with the team. As at the time of writing, the Deputy Minister for Sports was yet to be confirmed by parliament, and the Vice President himself had not expressed any desire of going along with the team to Freetown. So under whose authority was Mr. Piime asking for the $70,000? And even more intriguing, when the money is approved, is it going to be in cash or traveler's cheques and who would be carrying it this time?