What Is Nyantekyi’s GFA Afraid Of?

I have never been oblivious of how the Kwesi Nyantekyi led Ghana Football Association (GFA) has been trying very hard to hide behind the veil of FIFA’s position of “non-interference” by Government in football administration, to hide lots of things that the public needs to know.

Nyantekyi’s GFA has been behaving as if it is an Island that is standing on its own and is over and above the laws of Ghana.

Hiding behind FIFA’s position of non-interference in the day-to-day running of football, Nyantekyi, Randy Abbey, Fred Pappoe, Fred Crentsil and co, are desperately trying to create the false impression that any attempt by the Ghanaian taxpayer to demand accountability in the use of state funds to run Ghana’s football, amounts to interference.

The truth of the matter is that, there is a vast difference between ACCOUNTABILITY and INTERFERENCE.

Nana Biakoye supports intoto, the position espoused by Kodjo Bonsu in yesterday’s edition of The Daily Graphic.

It is a fact that per Article 70 of the GFA’s statutes, there must be a Public Interest Committee (PIC) that must protect the interest of the taxpayer as regards how state funds are used/misused by the GFA.

During the period of the period of the NPP, for reasons that are obvious, the PIC did not see the light of day.

The Government of the day was not interested in accountability and so refused to put in place the PIC for it to protect the interest of the taxpayer.

In the process, Nyantekyi and his GFA friends had a field day and did as they pleased with the taxpayers money.

Recently, when the Mills Administration was taking its time to give a befitting gift to the gallant Satellites players, did Isaac Essiamah and his errant NPP colleagues not make senseless noise about Government delaying?

The point I am making is that, it is Government that virtually picks the bill for Ghana’s sporting activities hence the need for Government to have a stake in how state funds are used.

Nyantekyi should please spare us his unacceptable talk to the effect that because the GFA has a so-called cordial relationship with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, there is no need to set up the PIC.

That position is not only an illiterate one; it is highly untenable and smacks of an attempt to use the so-called cordial relationship to run away from accountability.

Besides, who says that the so-called cordial relationship is not to the benefit of the GFA and those in-charge of the Sports Ministry?

Who says that the so-called cordial relationship is not to the benefit of only a few individuals and not to the benefit of the Ghanaian taxpayer? Is Nyantekyi not a lawyer?

So where in the laws of Ghana does it state that once there exists cordial relationships, statutory bodies must not exist?

Is Nyantekyi saying that once there is a cordial relationship between armed robbers and judges, we must allow the robbers to have a field day? By the same strange logic, is Nyantekyi not saying that the GFA should not be in existence once there is a cordial relationship between the players and Government?

Nyantekyi; please spare us this toddlers talk!

If the GFA statutes state that the PIC must be set up, it would be set up whether Nyantekyi and his friends like it or not.

We are not saying that Nyantekyi and his GFA are corrupt; what we are saying is that there are serious questions that need to be answered, and we need answers. For example, is true that during the last World Cup, Nyantekyi and his GFA friends pocketed a whooping $110,000 each?

Is it true that during the last World Cup, an account was opened in a German Bank and that the GFA kept withdrawing huge sums from the account “waa waa waa” without let or hindrance?

And is it true that immediately there was a change in Government, the GFA stopped withdrawing monies from the said account and that as things stand now, there is some money sitting in the account and the money could get swallowed by the bank once the account becomes dormant because the GFA is now afraid to touch the money?

Is it true that the GFA has not been accounting for the monies that accrue to the Association via the Black Stars’ participation in international friendly matches?

How much money was given to the GFA for the 2006 World Cup?

After Government funded the 2006 World Cup, what happened to the money that FIFA refunded to the Government of Ghana?

When Nyantekyi says that he has already appeared before the Public Accounts Committee and so there is no need to set up the PIC, I laugh!

There is something called creative accounting and who says that the GFA cannot appear before the Public Accounts Committee with a creative balance sheet that does not tell the true story?

The GFA is not; and cannot be an autonomous body.

The GFA cannot be collecting money from Government and tell us that they are not accountable to anybody.

If they want to be autonomous, then they should look for their own money and fund their activities and fat per diems.

Some of us are very happy that the issue of the PIC has now been mainstreamed in Ghana’s public discourse and we have no doubt that at the end of the day, Nyantekyi and his friends at the GFA will have to contend with the PIC because the suffering Ghanaian taxpayer cannot be giving money to a group of people who hide behind non-interference and become laws onto themselves.

Nyantekyi and his GFA friends must know that the Atta Mills Administration has committed itself to the principles of probity and accountability and no person/persons shall be spared if they are found to have chopped the nation’s money “fuka fuka”.

Nyantekyi and co; your glory days are over.

We are building a Better Ghana and the GFA has no option but to conform to the dictates of the time. Nana Biakoye