Former Sports Minister Mustapha Ussif is due before Parliament’s Youth and Sports Committee on Thursday, 17 September 2026, as lawmakers press for answers on how Ghana spent public money to host the 13th African Games, AhotorSports has learnt.
The sitting is part of a continuing inquiry into a forensic audit that identified financial irregularities and procurement breaches exceeding GH¢580 million.
Ussif served as Minister for Youth and Sports from March 2021 until January 2025 under the previous New Patriotic Party administration. Ghana had won hosting rights in 2018. The Games, branded Accra 2023, were postponed and eventually ran from 8 to 23 March 2024 across Accra, Cape Coast and other venues.
They featured 29 disciplines, more than 5,000 athletes from 53 nations, and produced Ghana’s best-ever medal haul: 19 gold, 29 silver and 21 bronze, placing the host sixth overall. Arm-wrestling alone contributed a large share of the medals. New or upgraded facilities included the Borteyman Sports Complex and work at the University of Ghana Sports Stadium.
Financing included a US$170 million loan approved by Parliament plus infrastructure contracts valued at more than US$145 million. Total receipts and expenditure recorded in the later audit reached GH¢2.245 billion. Outstanding liabilities of about GH¢208.6 million remained at the time of the report.
President John Dramani Mahama commissioned the forensic audit in 2025 after the change of government. The 700-page report by Auditor-General Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu was submitted to Parliament in February 2026.
It catalogued overpricing, payments for undelivered or unverified goods, lump-sum contracts for variable services, single-source awards without documented justification, related-party contracting, weak cash controls, and construction defects at several venues.
Auditors recommended recovery actions and sanctions, citing Section 92 of the Public Procurement Act, against Ussif, former Chief Director William Kartey, and former Local Organising Committee Executive Chairman Dr Kwaku Ofosu-Asare. The Auditor-General later indicated he would pursue surcharge powers under the Constitution.
Specific findings included a sports-equipment contract with Delovely Company Limited under which equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars was not supplied; accommodation rates charged well above prevailing market levels; non-feeding costs bundled into a large catering contract without supporting schedules; anti-doping services described as overpriced; and 14 major service contracts worth GH¢336.6 million structured as fixed lump sums despite covering variable items such as catering, transport and accommodation.
Auditors also flagged contracts worth about GH¢150.6 million awarded to companies sharing a common beneficial owner and dozens of single-source awards totalling billions of cedis that lacked the required justifications or price benchmarking. Infrastructure inspections recorded defects whose rectification was estimated in the tens of millions of cedis.
Ussif issued a statement in May 2026 after the report became public. He said the document attributed irregularities to him but denied responsibility for them. He noted that the report would go to Parliament and that those named would have the chance to respond, adding that he looked forward to that opportunity.
Current Sports and Recreation Minister Kofi Adams has publicly said a mere denial is insufficient and that Ussif should follow formal processes if he wishes to clear his name.
The committee’s hearings this week have already exposed a sharp disagreement over who actually controlled procurement. On Wednesday 16 September, Adams and Ofosu-Asare appeared.
Ofosu-Asare told MPs that the Local Organising Committee was not responsible for procurement; that function, he said, sat with the Ministry of Sports. When members asked him to explain three media-related line items on page 70 of the LOC financial report—GH¢200,000 for media engagement programmes, GH¢207,000 for media activities and GH¢700,000 for media resources, totalling GH¢1.107 million—he declined, saying the questions should go to the relevant portfolio head.
Committee members criticised the answer as unhelpful. Adams also informed the committee that some LOC portfolio heads expected to testify are currently outside the country, raising questions about the timetable for further sittings.
Ussif’s appearance is therefore expected to focus on the ministry’s role in approving contracts, supervising expenditure, and overseeing the relationship between the ministry and the LOC.
