Tribe Culture Fest and its Chief Executive Officer, Nana Boateng Gyimah, have denied allegations that the organisation received $611,000 from private individuals and is refusing to refund the money.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Mr Gyimah said the allegations attributed to the Minister for Sports and Recreation, Kofi Adams, were not supported by established facts.
He insisted that neither Tribe Culture Fest nor its CEO had received the money from the individuals mentioned in the allegations.
“Our position is clear. Tribe did not receive the alleged $611,000 from the private individuals referred to in the public allegation, and we do not enter into personal financial arrangements being attributed to us,” he said.
Mr Gyimah explained that the organisation’s dealings with the National Sports Authority (NSA) and the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) were based on institutional and contractual arrangements for specific programmes and activities.
These arrangements, he said, covered event logistics, travel arrangements, hotel bookings, transportation and security.
He added that Tribe charged $3,000 and $2,000 as full and final payments for its role in the activities, stressing that the organisation had not received money directly from individuals seeking assistance to travel abroad.
According to him, the arrangements were not personal financial transactions with people seeking visas to travel to the United States, Canada or Mexico.
Mr Gyimah also referred to allegations that some individuals had paid between $14,000 and $20,000 to persons at the NSA, allegedly in exchange for assistance in securing visas, mainly to the United States and Canada.
He called for verifiable evidence to establish who made the payments, who received the money, when and how the transactions occurred, and the accounts through which the funds were transferred.
He further demanded copies of any agreements, receipts or acknowledgements linking Tribe Culture Fest or its CEO to the money, as well as the legal or contractual basis for requiring the organisation to refund it.
“These are not unreasonable demands. They are minimum evidentiary requirements for determining responsibility in a matter of this nature,” he said.
Mr Gyimah maintained that any investigation must identify the actual recipients of the funds and determine whether the money was paid through an intermediary and, if so, where it ultimately went.
“If a claim is made that Tribe received or must refund a particular amount, the evidence should establish the basis for that claim,” he added.
The denial follows allegations surrounding the $611,000 and questions over whether Tribe Culture Fest is responsible for refunding the money.
The organisation maintains that it did not receive the funds from the private individuals in question.
