Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Pius Hadzide has said his outfit will be setting a bad precedent if it continues to give out funds to sporting federations for competitions without seeking for accounts to be rendered.
The Minister recently denied the national amateur boxing team,the Black Bombers financial support for an African Championship, because they failed to account for funds provided them for previous competitions.
According to the Deputy Minister, “it was clear that, they could not account for the amount they took from the ministry, and we are not going to send the signal that any federation can get up, put a budget together, submit to the ministry and get the money.”
He added that, there were other issues including how the Bombers were composed, what fitness regime they undertook, what health check they went through before the competition.
“Normally those things are not looked at and athletes are sent for competitions and they come back with nothing to show for it,”he said to Accra-based Happy FM.
“We render any pesewa that government gives us to government just like any other institution. You cannot go for money from an institution and not render account and have the moral ground to go for another money or financial support for a similar event,”he stressed.
This he said was made clear to the boxers as the Ministry would not set a bad precedence to other associations since “anybody can come in the name of a federation, present a budget to the ministry,hoping to get money.”
The Black Bombers were scheduled to travel to Congo, Brazaville this month for the 2017 Africa Boxing Championship. The competition would also serve as qualifiers for the AIBA World Championship in Hamburg, Germany in August.
The country was to send over 20 boxers to compete in 11 weight categories at the continental showpiece,hoping to win medals for the country.
