he Minority in Parliament has alleged that only two of the 50 media names submitted by the government to the United States Embassy as media personnel for activities related to the 2026 FIFA World Cup were verified as journalists.
According to the Ranking Member of Parliament’s Select Committee on Sports, Vincent Assafuah, this came to light during a due diligence exercise by the US Embassy’s Fraud Prevention Unit.
Addressing the media in Parliament on the back of this, he said the remaining 48 individuals had no demonstrable professional media backgrounds based on information available to the Minority.
“Of the 50 names submitted, only two persons, Philip Narh and Andy Dosty of Multimedia, both associated with Multimedia, were identified as media practitioners,” he said.
He said the development raised questions about the process used by the Ghana Tourism Authority to select and submit the names of beneficiaries, saying the authority’s Chief Executive Officer, Maame Efua Houadjeto, was allocated 400 visa slots by the US Embassy and another 600 by the Canadian Embassy.
“If these allocations are accurate, which I believe they are accurate, the public is entitled to know how many visas were ultimately issued, how many applications were rejected and how the allocated slots were utilised,” he said.
The Minority Ranking Member also alleged that some individuals on the list paid between US$8,000 and US$9,000 to the GTA CEO in connection with arrangements for the World Cup.
He, however, did not provide further details or evidence to substantiate the alleged payments.
