Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), James Klutse Avedzi says the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Professor Amin Alhassan has some questions to answer on the 2024 All African Games payment brouhaha.
This comes after the GBC Boss challenged the Sports Minister’s position that 3.6 million dollars had been paid to the state broadcaster for coverage of the 2024 All African games.
Speaking on GTV, Prof. Alhassan clarified that the broadcaster received only $105,000, which was intended as support for GBC’s decision to dedicate an entire channel to the African Games, thereby suspending normal programming.
“I was one of those shocked to learn that the Minister of Youth and Sports said that they have paid GBC in excess of $3 million. And I want to assure every Ghanaian in the public that GBC’s total benefit from the African Games was $105,000 equivalent, nothing more was paid as a benefit to GBC.
“And that payment of $105,000 was in support of the fact that we dedicated an entire channel for 24 hours. We suspended normal programming for the GTV Sports Plus, and we dedicated it to the African Games and for our role as the official broadcaster,” he explained.
However, the Sports Ministry has since been demanding an apology from the Director-General for suggesting that the Sports Minister misled the public.
Speaking on JoyNews, the Executive Assistant to the Sports Minister, Jamaludeen Abdullah accused Professor Alhassan of playing games and intentionally confusing Ghanaians about the financial dealings between the Ministry and GBC.
But Chairman of PAC, James Klutse Avedzi says the GBC Boss, Professor Amin Alhassan has some explanation to do to lay the matter to rest
“I think the Director-General is not coming forth with the full information. If he had explained at that interview that, ‘yes, we received the entire 3.6 million dollars from the Ministry of Sports but because we also engaged a third party, we have transferred the money to them’, that would have settled the matter.
“So for me, the issue now lies with the Director-General to explain and I think it is something that both the Director-General, GBC and the Ministry of Youth and Sports must come out, reconcile the figures and let the public know”.
myjoyonline.com