8 months, no deal for RVG’s assistants

With barely four months before the expiry of their one-year deals, Flames assistant coaches Gerald Phiri and DeKlerk Msakakuona are yet to sign government contracts.

Phiri and Msakakuona were hired as first and second assistant coaches in April this year to understudy head coach Ronny van Geneugden (RVG).

But Football Association of Malawi (FAM) general secretary Alfred Gunda and director of sports in the Ministry of Labour, Youth, Sports and Manpower Development Jameson Ndalama on Friday said the coaches contracts are being finalised by the Department of Human Resource Management (DHRM).

Said Gunda: “We have been following up the issue and we now understand that it is in the hands of the DHR. To that effect, the two gentlemen were called to Capital Hill in Lilongwe last week to provide more personal information.”

Asked how the coaches were being paid in absence of contracts, the FAM GS said: “As we wait for government to finalise the deals, we are paying them monthly up-keeps based on monthly assignments.”

Asked further on the probability of the two coaches being paid in arrears once they put pen to paper, both Gunda and Ndalama were noncommittal.

Said Gunda: “It will be difficult for me to say whether that will be done because that will be purely a government decision and we will be guided by them as an employer.”

On his part, Ndalama said at the time FAM informed them about the decision to hire the two coaches, government was already inside another fiscal year.

“But the matter is now in the hands of the Department of the Human Resource Management who are working on putting them into the system,” he said.

And responding to a question on whether they will be paid in arrears, Ndalama said: “Our understanding is that for the time being, they are being paid by FAM and government will come in after their contracts are finalised.”

Phiri said he cannot comment much as the issue is in the hands of government.

“All I can say is that we are just waiting,” he said.

Phiri and Msakakuona were unveiled on March 29 this year.

It also took some time for immediate past coach Ernest Mtawali and his assistant Nsanzurwimo Ramadhan to be included in the system due to government bureaucracy.  n