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Visa scandal: Sports Minister must take responsibility – International relations expert
An international relations expert, Dr Ishmael Hlovor, says the Sports Minister, Mustapha Yusif is partly to blame for the recent failures of his ministry's structures.
An international relations expert, Dr Ishmael Hlovor, says the Sports Minister, Mustapha Yusif is partly to blame for the recent failures of his ministry’s structures.
According to him, if the systems at the ministry were free of loopholes, they would have been able to detect such irregularities.
“Of course, we have to take some responsibility. These are Ghanaians who have done this and of course, we can’t entirely blame the [embassy],” he said this on Joy FM’s Top Story on July 24.
This follows, reports that nine out of an 11-member team of Ghanaian Para-athletes went missing upon their arrival in Oslo for the Bergen Marathon this year.
Mr Yusif criticised the Norwegian Embassy in Ghana for failing to ensure due diligence in the application process for some Ghanaians who entered Norway under the guise of being Paralympic athletes.
But Dr Hlovor said the blame should not be apportioned to the Norwegian Embassy alone.
He insists that each institution at some point or another failed to deliver on their mandates.
“While they used processes within their [Norwegian] structures. They used processes within your [Sports ministry] established structures.
“For instance, how did they get to know that if you use the signature of the association’s President then that carries weight. That should say that there is some loop hopes in some of the federations and we can not say that because it is not directly related to the Ministry of Sports, we won’t take responsibility,” he added.
Speaking on the same show, Ranking Member on Parliament’s Sports Committee, Wisdom Kobena Woyome, said there must be transparency in the incidents.
He added that this would help redeem Ghana’s image.
“There ought to be an internal, a very transparent process not one that is shrouded in any secrecy. It is something that we should all look at,” he added.
