GH¢580M: Total Financial Irregularities
GH¢2.24B: Total Funds Received & Spent
GH¢208M: Outstanding Liabilities Remaining
A comprehensive report by the Auditor-General has exposed systemic procurement abuse, inflated contracts, defective infrastructure, and unaccounted public funds in the hosting of the 13th African Games, Accra 2023 the first time Ghana staged the continent’s Games.
Parliament gave its formal approval on 6th July 2021, endorsing both the hosting agreement between Ghana and the African Union Commission and a $170m loan agreement with CalBank Ghana Limited as Facility Agent to finance sports infrastructure and residential facilities.
A separate commercial agreement valued at $145,086,057.54 with Contracta Construction UK Limited was approved for the construction of the required sports infrastructure.
The Games were conceived not merely as a sporting event but as a strategic national development intervention, an opportunity to upgrade Ghana’s existing sports infrastructure and reposition the country as a major sporting hub on the continent.
A total of GH¢2,245,515,037.44 was received and spent on the hosting of the Games, drawn from government releases, cash sponsorships, participation registration and accommodation fees, gate proceeds, and the sale of broadcast feed. Despite this expenditure, a total outstanding liability of GH¢208,583,739.49 remained as at the date of the audit report.
How the Audit Was Conducted
Acting pursuant to Section 16 of the Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act 584) and a formal request from the Office of the President referenced OPS141/1/25/35 dated 22 October 2025, the Auditor-General carried out the comprehensive audit and submitted findings to Parliament. The mandate drew additional authority from Article 187(2) of the 1992 Constitution and Article 187(8), which empowers the President to request the Auditor-General to audit, at any time, the accounts of any public body or organisation.
The audit approach was risk-based and conducted in accordance with the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAIs), including ISSAI 100, ISSAI 3000 (Performance Audit), and ISSAI 4000 (Compliance Audit). The methodology combined financial audit techniques, forensic procedures, engineering assessments, and technical verification to obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence. The scope covered all operational, financial, and technical aspects of the Games held in Ghana, including the Games Management System, procurement and contract management, infrastructure and equipment construction, fund management, volunteer payments, accommodation, feeding, transportation, and compensation management.
Financial Irregularities: GH¢580 Million in Financial Irregularities
The audit revealed total financial irregularities amounting to GH¢580,042,347.40. This staggering figure spans overpriced contracts, payments for undelivered goods, cash withdrawn outside mandated financial systems, and funds disbursed for activities entirely unrelated to the Games. The Auditor-General has recommended that these amounts be recovered from Mustapha Ussif (former Minister of Youth and Sports), William Kartey (former Chief Director), and Dr. Kwaku Ofosu-Asare (former LOC Chairman)
Procurement Management: A Catalogue of Failures
One of the most serious findings of the audit concerns procurement. Contracts valued at GH¢45,961,552.60 were awarded through uncompetitive processes with unverified approval authority. The Public Procurement Authority (PPA) itself “reluctantly accepted” certain single-source contracts valued at GH¢18,036,264.19, while separately ordering a 10% (and in some cases 5%) reduction in contract sums totalling GH¢16,573,342.47, an indication of the PPA’s own discomfort with the prices being presented to it.
Most alarming, single-source justifications were absent for contracts valued at approximately GH¢2.7B representing a near-total collapse of competitive procurement discipline. The audit further found that JDK Travel and Tours, which was awarded contracts worth approximately $1,575,000 (GH¢18.9 million), was an unqualified contractor that should not have been engaged for the scope of work it was assigned.
Contract Management
The audit also exposed a recurring structural problem across multiple contracts, services whose actual cost depended on variable factors, such as the number of passengers, athletes accommodated, meals served, or anti-doping tests conducted were awarded at fixed predetermined sums. This approach, applied across anti-doping, accommodation, catering, air ticketing, and transportation contracts (totalling GH¢336,626,436.68), removed all incentive for cost control and created conditions for inflated billing.
Price benchmarking revealed significant overcharging across multiple categories. Anti-doping tests contracted through Omni Specialty Product Limited at EUR 739,225.98 significantly exceeded WADA-accredited laboratory benchmarks, resulting in an excess of EUR 572,040 (GH¢8,008,560). Accommodation at US$150 per room per night was found to be double the prevailing market rate of between $50 and $70, creating an overcharge of $840,000 (GH¢10,080,000). Boxing equipment was contracted at $109,828 against a benchmark of $48,835, while Triathlon equipment cost $449,333 against a benchmark of $216,909.
The audit also identified a common beneficial owner and related-party exposure across contracts worth GH¢150,618,720.83, raising serious conflict-of-interest concerns. Multiple contracts with overlapping scope for sports equipment, catering, printing, branding, medical services, and the Games Management System were simultaneously awarded to different entities, resulting in both duplication and waste.
Payments were effected for undelivered goods, unrelated activities, or without supporting documentation a pattern that points to systemic breakdowns in institutional control environments, not merely isolated lapses. Auditor-General Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu
Financial Management
The LOC’s financial management drew particularly sharp scrutiny. Cash withdrawals totalling GH¢20,374,883.45 were made outside the Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), deliberately circumventing the financial controls that GIFMIS is designed to enforce. Cash payments were also made directly to third parties in violation of mandatory Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) requirements.
Perhaps most strikingly, a review of the LOC’s Us dollar and Cedi bank accounts identified payments totalling GH¢15,093,666 made for activities entirely unrelated to the hosting of the 13th African Games. These transactions included advance salary payments and other disbursements to officials and staff of the national football team the Black Stars including the Head Coach and Assistant Coach. These expenditures were processed through LOC accounts despite not forming any part of the approved Games mandate or budget.
On the donations front, a broker who secured water sponsorship in kind was paid GH¢101,292 in cash contrary to the established policy that brokers securing in-kind sponsorships be compensated equally in kind. The payment was made in the absence of a central sponsorship register and with weak donation reconciliation controls.
The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation’s management of its role in the Games was found to be significantly deficient. GBC engaged service providers for approximately GH¢3,560,213.52 without formal contracts in place. The PPA ratification of procurement decisions was delayed and irregular, and GBC staff were deployed in the execution of contracts awarded to external firms the Production Games Services (PGS) and Quality Media Productions (QMP) without commensurate revenue flowing back to GBC.
A training contract with The Production Room (TPR) valued at €57,030 was paid in full in advance with no evidence of training actually delivered, no schedules, no attendance records, no training materials, and no certification. The contract was entered into without competitive procurement, a needs assessment, or any deliverable-based safeguards. The audit attributed responsibility to the Director-General of GBC, Prof. Amin Alhassan, in addition to the former Minister, Chief Director, and LOC Chairman.
Infrastructure
Physical inspections across the five major Games infrastructure projects uncovered widespread construction-phase defects: concrete cold joints, slab cracking, poor compaction, inadequate waterproofing, corrosion of fittings, unsealed penetrations, drainage failures, and incomplete works at facilities including the Aquatic Centre, Legon Stadium, the Temporary Kitchen Facilities, and the Achimota Pavilion. Post-construction assessments revealed additional progressive cracking, material degradation, and latent defects attributable to workmanship deficiencies, poor detailing, and insufficient quality assurance. The cumulative cost of rectifying these defects was estimated at no less than GH¢12,000,000 ($1,000,000).
The Borteyman Sports Complex, the flagship venue, which was built from scratch at a contract value of $145,086,057.54 suffered particularly acute damage through what the audit describes as the “May Action Plan” variation order. This non-itemised variation resulted in a net loss of $34,430,646.52 (23.8%), arising from reductions in scope valued at $49,337,787 that were used to settle claims for time extensions, tax reimbursements, and delayed invoices rather than delivering commensurate physical works. At the University of Ghana Stadium, five variations increased the contract by nearly $3m, with $2.8m deemed avoidable and irregular. At the Legon Sports Village, unjustified repainting costs and improper extension-related charges added a further $1.75m in irregular claims.
A Call for Structural Reform Not Just Recovery
The audit identified pervasive failures in financial management, procurement, contract administration, governance, and supervision across the entire planning and execution of the 13th African Games. The total quantified exposure from financial irregularities alone amounts to GH¢580,042,347.40, with administrative and procurement irregularities reflecting further systemic weaknesses that cannot be captured in a single monetary figure.
The Auditor-General characterised the findings as reflecting “structural deficiencies in institutional control environments” emphasising that these were not isolated human errors but the product of systemic breakdowns in governance, internal controls, procurement compliance, contract administration, financial stewardship, and oversight.
The general recommendation to Government was that the findings be treated as a catalyst for structural reform. Recovery of the irregular expenditures, the report states, must be pursued concurrently with institutional strengthening measures to restore procurement integrity, enforce fiscal discipline, and safeguard public funds in future national undertakings of this scale.