Reports are emerging of further cracks within the top hierarchy of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) as sources have confirmed the recent postponement of the GOC’s annual congress was due to unresolved issues relating to the payment of legal fees and unaccounted imprest running into about $20,000.
According to sources, the board of the GOC was informed that the GOC President, Ben Nunoo Mensah withdrew GHc15, 000 from the GOC accounts in 2021 as payment for legal fees, and $20,000 as imprest for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but is yet to account for both.
It will be recalled that on 21st April, the GOC announced the postponement of its annual congress to “date before the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022,” according to a letter signed by the GOC’s Deputy Secretary-General Jerry Ahmed.
Ahmed did not give any further reasons for the postponement but the fact that the substantive Secretary-General of the GOC, Mohammed Sahnoon, did not sign the letter raised eyebrows. There appears to be no love lost between the GOC President and his Secretary General who clashed over who has the right to suspend the Administrative manager, Farida Iddriss earlier in March.
The New Crusading GUIDE understands that the Emergency GOC Board meeting raised issues about the purported payment of GH15,000 as legal fees to Zweenes and Gaisie Law firm in an ongoing case with a former GOC Project Officer, Erasmus Kwaw, at an Accra High Court- Labour division since January 2018.
Some board members questioned why the GOC has spent about GH 49,257 as legal fees from 2018 to 2021 when it could have simply paid the severance fees of the aggrieved worker with the same amount.
The financial statement of the GOC’s accounts dated 31 December 2019 revealed the Olympic governing body spent GH15,000 on legal fees for 2019 and GH 9,707 in 2018. In addition, the financial statement for the year 2020 revealed the GOC spent a further GH 9,550 on legal fees.
It remains to be seen how the latest scandal would be resolved before the next GOC Congress.
