Nii Lante Vanderpuye, a former Minister of Youth and Sports, has promised that necessary steps will be taken to recover funds spent on sports infrastructure.
In 2018, the ruling NPP government through the then Sports Minister, Isaac Asiamah, cut sod for the building of ten multi-purpose Youth Resource Centres across all parts of the country.
The facilities were to be in ten regions with each centre estimated to cost an amount of $1.8 million with construction expected to be completed within nine months.
Wa, Dormaa, Dunkwa Offin, Koforidua, Nyinahini, Axim, Accra, Navrongo, Yendi and Ho are the places mentioned by the government to house the facilities.
The projects were part of the government's efforts to address the sports infrastructure deficit in the country and included a FIFA standard pitch, an 8-lane athletic track, a career counselling centre, basketball and volleyball courts as well as tennis and handball courts.
However, six years after the commencement of construction, some of the projects have been abandoned and an $18 million worth of investment left to rot.
Speaking to ChannelOne Sports, Vanderpuye was responding to a question when quizzed about the future of Youth Resource Centres in the country should the National Democratic Congress (NDC) get voted into power after the 2024 Ghana Presidential and Parliamentary Elections on December 7.
“Any facility that government and the taxpayer’s money has been spent on will definitely be completed and used for the purpose for which it was constructed but there will be nothing wrong with government also probing to see whether money has judiciously been used for such things and where it is found that monies have not been used judiciously, appropriate measures will be taken to retrieve government money that have been wrongly spent. Where it’s been used judiciously, no problem.”
“If by the grace of God almighty, I find myself in a position where I need to ask certain questions and demand certain answers from my predecessor, I will do so. I don’t care who my predecessor was. I will do so because I will not inherit a problem for which I’m not the cause of and I wouldn’t want to inherit a problem that I would not have answers for when I’m asked about it tomorrow.”
By: Pascal Amoah
