Anti-corruption campaigner Edem Senanu has urged authorities to investigate and potentially prosecute individuals found culpable in the Ghana Football Association’s (GFA) bus scandal.
A Joy Sports investigation revealed that the GFA, through its bus initiative for Division One and Women’s Premier League clubs, awarded a GHC5.1 million deal to the association’s Chief of Staff, Michael Osekere, in a clear conflict of interest.
In November, GFA President Kurt Okraku handed over nine buses to Division One clubs to ease their transportation challenges. However, the former Chairman of the Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA), J.Y. Appiah, described the vehicles as “16-year-old death traps.” The buses remain unregistered, and some clubs have been asked to return them.
Each bus reportedly cost over GHC500,000—an amount deemed excessive for vehicles that are currently immobile.
Speaking on News Night on Joy FM, Senanu stressed that the procurement process should have followed a competitive bidding system.
“It spells fraud. That’s what we call corruption. I mean, when you’ve been entrusted with responsibility, and there have been clear efforts to manipulate the process for your benefit or those around you.
“If something has been reported, misreported, or underreported regarding the actual age and yet assigned a cost it does not have, that is corruption.
“There is also an administrative process stating that when something exceeds a certain ceiling, it should go through an open tender. That was not followed. If the facts are available, they must be reported so investigative agencies can take over.
“Persons must be held accountable because this is an attempt to defraud the state of resources that are already scarce for many essential needs.”
Documents obtained by Joy Sports indicate that the GFA acquired the buses through a sole-sourcing deal with Freightgistics Ghana Company Ltd, which handled the clearance of vehicles procured from World Trade Co. Ltd in Incheon, Korea.
Freightgistics Ghana Company Ltd, incorporated on March 28, 2013, is directed by Michael Osekere, the GFA’s Chief of Staff, raising concerns over a conflict of interest.
(Additional information by Muftawu Nabila Abdulai)
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