Ghana’s sports minister, Alhadji Mubarak, has been asked by President John A Mills to provide answers to accusations of corruption leveled against him by the officials of his ministry.
He is alleged to be requesting for huge sums of money to cover expenses that seem to be questionable. The total amount involved will run into several hundreds of thousands of Ghana cedis. He is also being accused of allocating a state vehicle to his wife.
This emerging case will be a test for the President who has promised during the campaign before his election not to shield any member of his government who will be subject to any accusations of corruption. He promised to deal swiftly with such charges in order not to encourage his officials to indulge in corrupt practices.
It is worth noting that the first sports minister under the government of ex president John Kufour was tried and sentenced for corruption in 2001 a few months after he took office. At that time the then government acted swiftly and leading to the imprisonment of that minister.
With this current case, fingers are being pointed at the sports ministry as it seems there is some form of "mafia" over there that tries to make any minister kowtow to them.