Tempers flare at Black Stars Presidential Commission

The Justice Dzamefe Commission has advised media houses to not allow people expressing their concerns about the commission on their platforms to avoid being cited for contempt.

Commissioner Moses Foh-Amoaning sounded the caution to open yesterday’s hot proceedings which saw Mr Horace Ankrah concluding his ill-tempered two-day evidence at the Media Centre of the Accra Stadium.

Commission’s concern

The Commission’s position followed comments made in a section of the media yesterday apparently in reaction to how the commission grilled Mr Ankrah when he appeared before it as the chairman of the Events, Grounds and Logistics Sub-committee last Tuesday.

Mr Foh-Amoaning stressed that the commission was a quasi judicial body with a constitutional mandate and powers of a High Court, hence the need for anybody with concerns to raise it before the commission instead of going on air to try matters in the media.

He noted with concern a recent article in the Daily Graphic where a writer sought to express his views about the commission, insisting that it bordered on contempt for anybody to say the commission was being unfair.    

Hot tempers

Proceedings followed on an ill-tempered note when Mr Ankrah expressed his reservation about the impression created by the commission that his committee had changed GH¢34 to $35 per head based on the proposal by only one of the three caterers. 

He stated that had he been given a fair chance he would have expressed himself well for the commission to appreciate.

However, Justice Senyo Dzamefe stressed that the commissioners’ questions were based on the brochure which he tendered but thought that the witness could not explain himself well enough.

Justice Dzamefe then wondered whether be was the one who put words in his mouth to say that it was the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) which arrived at the final figure, and Mr Ankrah quickly withdrew that statement and pointed out to the commission that that decision was actually taken by the operational team.

Mr Ankrah attributed his inability to convince the commission in his first appearance to the attitude of the chairman, compelling Justice Dzamefe to ask counsel Godwin Adadewine to tell his client to withdraw that comment.

A remorseful Mr Ankrah quickly withdrew it and apologised profusely to Justice Dzamefe, explaining that he respected the commission and did not mean to be rude in anyway. 

Required evidence

Afterwards, the commission gave him the opportunity to explain how the operational team arrived at the $35 per head after which Justice Dzamefe jovially made reference to how people are sometimes accused of things they did not do because of the way they talk.

“The rule of our game is evidence,” Justice Dzamefe stressed, adding that the commission did not exist to fight anybody.

He rejected a document tendered by Mr Ankrah as an email sent to the operational team by the caterers in response to the figures arrived at and demanded for the original copy with all the necessary details.  

When confronted with the fact that the caterers ended up cooking foodstuffs which were bought for them in Brazil, Mr Ankrah said since that was not the agreement he only heard about it but did not have the details because he was not in Brazil.

He also agreed with the commission that a total of $19,200 were paid to each of the three caterers - Kenkey Boutique, Amber Quality Foods and Monees Foods - for their services.

It was also established that the total cost of feeding the 612 supporters was $321,300.

Mr Ankrah, who later revealed that he had taken about 5000 people off the streets to his school in the UK which attracts 3,500 pounds fees, as well as enrolling some Ghanaians in his Driving School also in the UK, said going forward he would never recommend the engagement of more than one caterer for that purpose.

Kenkey Boutique’s testimony

For her part, Mercy Amina Dauda Sackey, Chief Executive Officer of Kenkey Boutique, told the commission that she and her colleagues needed further compensation based on an earlier promise since the $19,200 paid them did not measure up to the kind of service they rendered to the supporters in Brazil.

In response, the chairman of the commission asked  her to put the request on paper and forward it to the commission for the necessary action.

She explained that after being given the contract by the MOYS she bought a large quantity of spices for the various menu only to be told at the last minute that they would not be allowed to send them to Brazil.

She told the commission that after failing to travel to Brazil two weeks before the World Cup as discussed, she arrived in Brazil just a day before Ghana’s opening match only to be told by one Afua at the supporters village that they could no longer be paid the $35 per head to cook any longer since there was no money.

She revealed that she and her colleagues eventually resigned to their fate and agreed to serve mother Ghana by cooking the food items supplied them by some Brazilian market women till they were given $2,000 each at a point for their service, followed by $51,600 paid to them on the eve of their return flight to be shared among them.

Sitting continues today at 10 a.m.