The Ranking Member of Parliament’s Youth and Sports Committee, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, has called on the Auditor-General to conduct a special audit of the two World Cup raffles organised by the government amid questions over the handling of funds raised from participants.
The New Patriotic Party MP wants a full account of the money collected, the winners and the prizes promised, insisting that everyone who staked money but could not travel must be compensated.
Speaking to the media in Parliament, Assafuah questioned what happened to participants in the first raffle, which he claims was cancelled without refunds before a second exercise was organised.
He cited the example of a street hawker who could have staked GH¢10,000 through multiple GH¢10 entries, only for the government to cancel the exercise without returning the money.
He wants the government to disclose whether participants in the first raffle were refunded, how many winners travelled to the United States or Canada and what happened to those who could not travel.
Assafuah also demanded details of the financial arrangements behind the advertised prizes, the contract with the raffle operator and clarification on whether the National Lottery Authority (NLA) licensed or partnered in the exercise.
He further called for an account of the 2,922 World Cup tickets purchased with public funds, including how many were allocated to raffle winners and whether they were used.
The MP wants the Auditor-General to examine both raffles, held on November 4 and March 18, 2026, as well as the World Cup fund. He also wants Parliament’s Youth and Sports Committee to include the raffle arrangements in its ongoing investigation into the visa controversy.
Assafuah has additionally called on the Data Protection Commission to investigate how the passports and personal information of raffle winners were collected, stored and shared.
His demands follow renewed scrutiny of the government’s World Cup travel arrangements after Sports Minister Kofi Adams disclosed that only five of the 31 winners of the second raffle secured US visas.
Adams has said the government is working on compensation for those who could not travel, maintaining that the funds raised through the second raffle remain untouched.
