Beneficiaries of $700,000 Ghana Black Stars unclassified payments unknown – Dzamefe report

Ghana spent over $700,000 on unclassified and indemnity payments on the Black Stars qualifiers for the abortive Brazil 2014 World Cup campaign.

According to the Dzamefe Commission of Inquiry’s report on matters relating to Ghana’s participation at the global gathering where the Black Stars exited at the group stage, a total of $685,000 was spent on unclassified payments.

The over 300-page report available to GNA Sports indicates that a further $46,000 was used as indemnity payment during seven of the matches played during the qualifiers that saw Ghana booking a ticket for her third successive appearance at the competition.

According to the findings, the “Unclassified payments and the Indemnity are provisions in the budget which the Ministry of Youth and Sports releases to the Ghana Football Association (GFA), for contingencies not defined in the budget.”

The report said that the essence of the unclassified payments in the qualification of the Black Stars to the World Cup was not clear and beneficiaries are not known.

According to the document, Ghana spent $400,000 on unclassified payment and $16,000 on indemnity payments during the Black Stars home and away matches with the Pharaohs of Egypt during the campaign.

When the Black Stars hosted Zambia in Kumasi, $100,000 and $16,000 were used as unclassified and indemnity payments for the match which Ghana won 2-1 to take control of the group.

Against Sudan at home and away, $100,000 was spent on unclassified payment where as $85,000 plus $14,000 were used for unclassified and indemnity payments for the matches with Lesotho.

The Black Stars attracted international ridicule following the players demand to receive their $100,000 appearance fee in cash before their third Group D match with Portugal, compelling government to fly $4 million to Brazil.

The players refused to train for a day ahead of the match they needed to win to qualify out of the group.

Source: GNA