The National Youth Authority (NYA), has provided partial information to JoySports on funds received by the authority from the District Assemblies Common Fund since 2020 and how much of that has been invested in each of the Multipurpose Youth Resource Centres.
The Authority in a document submitted to JoySports revealed that it received over GHC 119 million from the Fund from 2020 to date.
The document signed by the Director of Administration of the NYA, E. Anaman-Mensah on behalf of the Chief Executive Officer claimed that about 70 percent of the total amount has been spent on the multipurpose youth resource centres being constructed across the country.
He, however, did not provide a breakup of how much has been spent on each of the facilities as requested by JoySports.
Muftawu Nabila Abdulai on behalf of JoySports in a Right to Information (RTI) request submitted to the Authority on March 8, 2023, asked for information on three areas.
1. Detailed breakup of how much has been received by the National Youth Authority from the District Assembly Common Fund since 2020
2. Detailed breakup of how this amount has been spent since 2020
3. Detailed breakup of how much of this amount has been spent on the construction of each of the ten (10) Multipurpose National Youth Resource Centres across the country.
The move by the JoySports reporter was to appreciate the challenges behind the abandonment of the Multipurpose Youth Resource Centres started in March 2018 by former Sports Minister, Isaac Asiamah.
Fentuo Tahiru Fentuo led JoySports’ ‘Bush Resource Centres’ initiative which exposed how some of the facilities have been left to rot and turned into breeding grounds for reptiles.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) and the NYA had earmarked and invested about $4 million for the renovation of the Azumah Youth Resource Centre alone, while the other nine facilities were to cost $1.8 million or more.
Most of these facilities were near completion but were abandoned in 2020. Sources had told JoySports it was due to lack of funds, while other sources attributed the abandonment to the absence of a Board and that, the then-acting CEO could not spend more than GHC 100,000.
It was later revealed that many contractors moved out of site and JoySports engaged the NYA using the RTI for details.
The NYA provided information to the first two questions on April 5, 2023.
It stated that the NYA received GHC 29, 218, 387.00 (2020), GHC 40,847,248.57 (2021), and 49,527,149.49 (2022).
In the said years, the NYA spent GHC 24,342,358.58, GHC 12,904,933.75, GHC 32,183,187.86, and GHC 14, 267, 723.05 on the multipurpose youth resource centres, totaling GHC 83, 698, 203.24 including the first quarter of 2023.
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The authority did not provide information on the third request which sought details of how much has been spent on each of the facilities.
JoySports asked the authority to provide that information on April 5, but the officials are yet to release the information two months on despite consistent assurance that the details will be forwarded to the desk.
Officials on April 26, 2023, told JoySports, “…the Finance Director has taken a short leave. We guarantee that information will reach you as soon he resumes.
“Therefore we request that you give us some few days to put together your request.”
Subsequent follow-ups since then have not been acknowledged.
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