Maputo Games Was The Worst Nightmare For Ghanaian Athletes – O. B. Amoah Former Deputy Education and Sports Minister during the Kuffuor led administration, Osei Bonsu Amoah has said despite funds being allocated to the committee of the All African Games in Maputo 2011, athletes had the worst ever preparations prior to and during the games. A number of officials of the National Sports Council (NSC), now National Sports Authority (NSA), had been indicted in a report in which they were cited for allegedly pocketing and embezzling hundreds of thousands of Ghana cedis. The Maputo Report came up for discussion when parliament met to approve the budget of the Ministry of Youth and Sports with the Ranking Member on the Committee, Hon. Isaac Asiamah raising questions about the ministry’s record of financial mismanagement and the delay in implementing the findings of the report. Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Doe Adjaho described the contents of the Maputo report as ‘damning’ and asked the Sports Ministry to expedite action against all persons named in the report. According to O. B. Amoah, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Akuapem-South Constituency, the athletes who participated in the games went through hell whiles some officials pocketed the money which was meant for the contingent. “We all know what went on in Maputo, how the athletes and officials were maltreated. They were stranded at the airport and even did not participate in the opening ceremony of the tournament. Even food was not available for them. If you look at the history of Ghana’s participation in the All African Games, I could say that was the worst nightmare for Ghana,” he described. He however called on the new Minister of Youth and Sports, Hon. Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah to act quickly and fish out those culprits. “The Minister of Youth and Sports is new in his office and has told parliament that he is going to react on the Maputo report. He (Elvis Afriyie) said he has consulted the Auditor General’s Department for advice; the advice is what we want to hear from him. The Minister has assured us that very soon, and the chair of the committee has also said by the end of the month they will be expecting the results of the report. The most important thing is what advice the Auditor General has given on the probe results, and based on the advice, how will they implement it?” he said. “…The government is playing delay tactics on the issue. This happened in 2011 and after probing why can’t they implement the outcome. Why will they (the government) wait for so many years before they act on this? If we keep on doing that, people will keep embezzling state funds without accountability,” he added. Speaking to Happy FM, O. B. Amoah expressed worried over how for the past years, the Ministry which he also served has been tagged with corruption. “What is going on is not good for the Sports Ministry at all, it create the image that the Sports Ministry is corrupt even though other ministries are worse. The newly appointed Minister should work hard and redeem the image of the ministry and also bring those culprits to book,” he said.