Technical Advisor to the Sports Minister, Bella Bello Bitugu, has disagreed with calls for officials at the Ministry to be charged with causing financial loss to the state following Ghana’s abysmal performance at the ongoing AFCON games.
He said there was no need to dig old wounds, look for scapegoats to blame over the tournament but rather look at issues that would help develop sports to discuss.
Speaking on Rainbow Sports, Mr. Bitugu noted that persons working in the sports fraternity must work towards promoting the sector instead of dwelling on negativity.
He disclosed that a new curriculum for the development of sports at the basic level has come to stay and these are some of the issues we have to dwell on.
To him, we need to discuss how sports can be developed in our schools and how they can help us unearth talents.
He added that those are the things we have to discuss in addition to the current issues.
He said “sports is going down because there are opinions about the absence of grassroots football strategy. These are things we need to be discussing instead of digging old wounds, looking for scapegoats to blame. Yes, we should discuss them but let us also look at ways we can improve the situation and provide solutions.”
He went on further to posit that “we should not put in a wholesale approach in charging people for causing financial loss to the state, rather there should be a mechanism to investigate every action to determine which money was spent on what and was it spent in the right manner and did it follow in the right procedure? If not, the law should take its course”.
Meanwhile, he has asserted that when going to a tournament, you go into it either to win or to lose. And if you lose, you should not be accused or be charged for causing financial loss just because you have lost matches. That is not how it works.”
He said if preparations were poor and monies were not spent appropriately, then it gives grounds for a probe.
But if monies were misapplied, you can charge for financial loss.
He asked Ghanaians to wait patiently for the probe to be conducted and also take our abysmal performance as one of the lessons for the future.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
