GOC Rejects Daily Graphic reports on gov't sponsorship for Rio 2016

Ghana Olympic team members at previous games

The Ghana Olympic Committee, G.O.C has countered claims by daily Graphic that “Government spent $750,000 on Rio 2016” during Ghana’s participation in the Olympic Games. 

The G.O.C issued a rejoinder to counter the story published by the daily graphic following a Press Conference held by the Olympic body on Friday, 16th September, 2016.

The G.O.C stated that “directly pay the athletes and officials’ per diems (that totaled about $80,000).”

Portions of the statement read ;

“The Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) strongly rejects the attempt by Graphic reporter Ben Neequaye to cast the GOC in a bad light by falsely claiming that we indicated that “Gov’t spent $750,000 on Rio 2016”, at our Press Conference on Friday, 16th September, 2016.

The story lead also contradicted the headline which actually stated that, “The Chef de Mission of Ghana at the Rio Olympic Games, Chris Essilfie, has revealed that the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) submitted a budget of $750,000 to the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) for their preparations and participation at the competition.”

We state categorically that Rio 2016 Chef de Mission, Chris Essilfie, never said that “Government spent $750,000 on Ghana’s preparation and participation in Rio 2016,” at the press conference.

Indeed, at the GOC Press Conference last Friday, Mr. Essilfie clearly stated that the GOC presented an initial budget of about $750,000 to the Ministry of Youth and Sports earlier in the process, when the GOC’s collation of information from the various sports federations suggested that the Ghana contingent might comprise 25 athletes.

But, he added that the amount was reviewed downward after only 16 Ghanaian athletes qualified for the Games.

In fact, at the press conference, the GOC went further to indicate that they had received no money directly from Government, although they appreciated the efforts of the Minister that resulted in GNPC providing the $120,000 needed to pay for the athletes and officials’ plane tickets to Rio, as well as the further corporate sector solicitation by the Minister that enabled the Ministry to directly pay the athletes and officials’ per diems (that totaled about $80,000). “