African Games Broadcast: $3.6M Included Services of 3rd Parties– Sports Minister

The Ministry of Youth and Sports has provided further clarity to the assertion that an amount of US$3.6 million was paid to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) for their coverage during the 13thAfrican Games.

In a statement, the Minister said the amount included payments for third-party services that were contracted by the GBC to assist them in the broadcast.

“With the understanding that GBC will use the services of third parties to assist them implement their obligations, the total agreed amount was $3.6 million. Subsequently, an agreement was reached between the two institutions: the Ministry and GBC.”

Background
The scuffle between the Ministry and the state broadcaster was provoked during a Public Accounts Committee meeting this week where the Minister, Hon Mustapha Ussif was inquired about the total amount paid to the GBC for their production and broadcasting services rendered at the 13TH African Games.

The Minister disclosed an amount of $ 3 Million was made, however, this was rebutted by the Director General of GBC, Prof Amin Alhassan who said the media organization received just US$105,000.

In an interview on Tuesday, he said “I want to assure every Ghanaian that GBC’s total benefit from the African Games was US$105,000. Nothing more was paid as a benefit to GBC and that payment was as support for the fact that we dedicated an entire channel for suspending our programmes for the GTV Sports Plus and dedicated it to the African Games and for our role as the official broadcaster that is what the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation was paid and not US$3million.”

He also confirmed a foreign technical team was sought to assist them in the production whose payments were made through the GBC.

“The GBC was invited to the table less than one month to the African Games to help with the production. We made it very clear that there was not enough for GBC to procure the necessary equipment. We were okay as the official broadcaster but definitely we needed a technical production team…As the official broadcaster, GBC was supposed to supervise the technical team. The technical production was sourced and the technical team that came in to do the work broadcast was supervised by GBC, we reported with the Ministry of Youth and Sports that the work was executed and their payments were made. These payments were made through GBC. They were not paid for GBC’s benefit.”