Sports Minister Appears Before Parliament

Various individuals and organizations contributed to Ghana before, during and after the FIFA 2006 World Cup tournament in Germany bringing in a total of 10,514,802.41 Ghana cedis. "The above money includes the FIFA Prize money of 4.9 million dollars equivalent to 4.549,807.99 Ghana cedis, which was paid after the tournament," sports Minister, Prof Dominic Fobih said when he appeared before Parliament on Wednesday to respond to a question on how much money was received for the Black Stars' participation in the tournament and how the monies were disbursed. He said, also included in the monies received was an amount of 937,620 dollars received from FIFA prior to the tournament. The Minister gave some breakdown of expenditure as 1,274,158.95 and 115,552.00 Ghana cedis for payment of bonuses and hotel bills respectively. Other expenditure included 11,352.40 and 33,680.65 as press relations and medical bills bringing the total expenditure to 8,997,465.93 Ghana cedis. "An amount of 1,517,336.48 Ghana cedis, which is the balance of money unutilized is currently lodged at the Ghana Football Account," Prof. Fobih added.