President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kwesi Nyantakyi, has revealed that money paid to outgoing members of the Executive Committee as ex gratia came from the association’s own largesse.
Members of the GFA’s Executive Committee, who served between 2011 and 2015, were paid USD 15,000 in benefits and that generated some public outcry.
However, Nyantakyi said at the GFA’s Congress in Prampram that the ex gratia payments did not come from the state as some have suggested.
” Let me clear a misconception about the ex gratia payments. The Executive Committee does not pay ex gratia. It was the decision by the Congress to pay these benefits to Executive Committee members. The money is also not from the government as some have said. It is our own money. We have our money and so why would anyone tell us how to spend it? The GFA is a company limited by guarantee and we have the right to spend our resources as we wish”.
He added “members of the Executive Committee are not workers of the Federation. They are not on salary and so if we are even to divide the USD 15,000 over the four-year period, they would get about USD 300 a month and I do not think it is a big deal” he stressed.
Members of the new Executive Committee were sworn in at the GFA’s Congress on Tuesday ahead of their four-year tenure.
The new members of the committee include CEO of Dreams FC Kurt Okraku, Inter Allies CEO Eric Delali Senaye, former B.A. United boss Roy Arthur and Abdullai Alhassan.
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By: Nathan Quao/citifmonline.com/Ghana