Athletics Malawi (AM) president Kondwani Chamwala has described his committee’s first year in office as challenging because their predecessors did not make handovers.
He said the situation forced them to purchase other office materials.
Chamwala made the remarks on Wednesday during the opening of the association’s annual general meeting in Lilongwe.
He said: “We faced a lot of challenges despite making a few strides. Our predecessors are yet to hand over assets to us and we have struggled a lot to operate the office.”
Chamwala alleged that their predecessors did not hand over assets such as laptop, furniture, institutional phone, fan, printer and punching machine.
When contacted, former AM general secretary Frank Chitembeya could not be reached on his phone nor respond to WhatsApp messages.
However, former AM president Godfrey Phiri in an interview denied the allegations.
He said: “It is news to me and I don’t understand the problem of the new executive committee because I left office a year ago ‘very smart’ after handing over everything to the current executive.
“I don’t know whom they want to please. We have been meeting all this time, but nobody has questioned me about these so-called assets.”
Phiri said raising the issue after a year is meant to tarnish the previous committee.
The former AM president said that former vice-treasurer John Mwathiwa, who is serving in the new committee, attended the handovers.
But Mwathiwa in a telephone call dismissed Phiri’s remarks describing them as false.
“Previously, we used to be housed in Bingu National Stadium, but the office is now closed and Mr Godfrey Phiri and his GS took the assets to their houses,” he said.
In his report, the current AM treasurer Adron Msowoya also said the previous administration refused to handover property.
Malawi National Council of Sports chief executive officer Henry Kamata said issues of poor governance are not particular to athletics alone.
He said: “If sports associations had functional secretariat, some of these problems will be avoided or eliminated.
“In a number of cases, you find leadership that runs associations as personal entities. When they leave office, they cling to associations’ documents and equipment.”
