Director General for the National Sports Authority (NSA), Robert Sarfo Mensah, has revealed his outfit is putting measures in place to retrieve money stated in the Auditor’s General Report on misappropriation of funds.
News broke out earlier in the week that AngloGold Ashanti provided $2 million in 2007 to the National Sports Authority to provide sports court in some selected areas in the country,
Ten years down the line, these facilities cannot be traced, while the others which were expected to be completed have been abandoned at Enchi, Dadieso, in the Western Region.
According to Graphic Sports investigations as far back as 2014, an Auditor General’s report charged the NSA for misappropriation of the funds on administrative purposes instead of the provision of the facilities.
The report further said four contractors commissioned to execute the project at Enchi, Wa, Obuasi, and Accra were paid GH¢78,241,11 far in excess of the certified contract sums for the project and asked the Authority to retrieve the excess payment immediately. A directive which has proven futile.
And the Director General is keen to clear the mess in his outfit.
“When I took over as the acting Director General, I read across it and realised that this [matter] should not be handled at individual level,” Robert told Ultimate FM.
“We need to establish systems and structures to make sure we get it.
“Per the new financial management act, there’s supposed to be a committee called Audit Committee. Our committee was only inaugurated days ago headed by a charted accountant.
“The first major work we gave to them was to give us a detailed report on the financial malfeasance, as alleged by the Auditor General Report, and make recommendations as to how we can make retrievals where necessary and put in measures to ensure that we encounter such challenges going forward,” he added.
The equivalent of the money granted by AngloGold Ashanti in cedis is GH¢3,090,380
