Ghanaian journalists who traveled on Business Class to Egypt for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations were paid $5,000 each, Fox FM has reported.
The country's sports ministry splashed the poor taxpayers money on their media friends and cronies during the country's calamitous campaign.
A record number of journalists traveled on the purse of the Ghanaian aimed at buying their silence.
The journalists, who were categorised into A,B,C and D, depending on stature, were handed hefty cash in the most lavish AFCON campaign in the country's history.
The revelation has exposed massive crack in the inky fraternity with some of the 'loud-mouthed' journalists left without a trace post-AFCON.
The decision to reward journalists skyrocketed the budget for the disastrous campaign.
The sports ministry borne the cost of the airfare, put them in luxurious hotel and topped it up with $5,000.
The $4.5 million spent on the trip has sparked massive controversy in the West African nation.
The sponsored journalists were sent on a mission to offer favourable media coverage for the sports ministry during the tournament in Egypt.
Most of the journalists, who are praise-singers of the Minister and critics of the former Ghana FA leadership, are being rewarded from the pockets of the poor Ghanaian taxpayer.
The concept was craftily designed to buy their silence to mask the plundering of meagre state resources to fund the campaign that can only generate the country $4.5 million if the Black Stars had the trophy.