‘Sports Ministry owes everybody’
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, believes the mass transfer of some top officials at the ministry would enhance his mission to eliminate corruption and save the ministry from its current financial mess.
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As revealed in an interview with myjoyonline.com, the ministry is saddled with a staggering GH¢16million debt, as against a paltry GH¢22million budget for the year.
But the challenges notwithstanding, the minister says he is bent on staying in office long enough to complete an ongoing revolution aimed at wiping out the practices of some self-seeking officials at the ministry.
“Things are becoming different; already, 80 per cent of staff who have been at the Ministry for more than three years have been transferred, leaving a relatively fresh team of administrators,” he noted.
Already, Nii Lante has stepped on some toes in his house-cleaning drive after slashing down the Black Stars’ winning bonus from $10,000 to $8,000, while putting on hold honorarium for FA officials which has been in operation since 2006.
But contrary to views that such tough decisions could make him fall victim to the huge turnover at a ministry which has recorded seven ministers in the past seven years, the minister said he was bent on changing that order with his revolution which has already won the hearts of some Ghanaians.
He disclosed that the ministry was in deep financial crisis such that it owed caterers for food since 2014, as well as travel and tour companies and a host of service providers and suppliers.
“We are seriously broke….it is amazing. Somebody is being owed since 2011; a hotel, what it means is that you are crumbling the business.”
“We are owing the footballers; we are owing even the amputees, we owe the Black Stars, we owe the Black Queens, the Black Princesses, we owe the Black Maidens, we owe everybody,” the minister lamented.
He said it didnn’t make sense to pay the Black Stars a $10,000 winning bonus, while advanced economies like the US pay their players $3,000.
The minister hinted that the Black Stars’ honorarium would soon be negotiated according to the strength of their opponents.