Auditor General to probe Maputo Committee report

Clement Kofi Humado, Minister of Youth and Sports has directed the Auditor Generals Department to study and examine the report of the Maputo Committee and response of indicted officials with the view of drawing up a fair conclusion.

The report of the Maputo Committee set up to investigate the troubles that blighted the nation’s participation at the 2011 All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique fingered two officials of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Wolanyo Agra (Director General) and Erasmus Adorkor (Chief Technical Officer), but the duo has since claimed innocence in their responses.

Whilst admitting administration lapses at the NSA as the hub of the problems, the Minister said the Auditor Generals Department will play a huge role in establishing the facts of the issues that bothers on criminality as raised by the Committee and the responses of the two officials.

He told GNA Sports that the choice to seek for clarification from the Auditor General is a procedural one aimed at soliciting for a neutral opinion to serve as a guide in the expected action.

“The Auditor General per our request has appointed external auditors to study the report of the Maputo Committee, responses of Agra (Wolanyo) and Adorkor (Erasmus) to establish criminality and financial malfeasance.”

According to Humado, he expects the External Auditors, already scrutizing the NSA’s 2010 and 2011 accounts to complete the process in about two weeks.

The Minister said he had already made available the Maputo Committee’s recommendations to the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the impending Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Games to aid their work and also serve as guide for Ghana’s participation in the London 2012 Olympic Games in July.

The five-member committee headed by Nii Adote Din Barima cited Agra for several malpractices including the award of contracts without recourse to neither due process nor diligence in their report submitted to the Minister last month.

Adorkor, who acted the Chef de Mission, was also implicated for some actions key amongst the payment of $32, 000 for the participation of the Black Meteors at the Games of which he failed to produce a receipt during Committee hearing.

Ghana bagged 19 medals, made up four gold medals, six silver medals and nine bronze medals to place 12th among the 51 countries that participated in the multi-sport event.

Source: GNA