Council ‘softens up’ on guidelines

Malawi National Council of Sports says it has softened up on some of the guidelines it set for sports associations in a bid to improve efficiency.

Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said in an interview yesterday that this comes after some associations raised issues on some of the guidelines which were launched two years ago.

He said the tenure of office, which was initially put at three years for a maximum of two terms, has been extended to four years.

“This is because most associations argued that the tenure of office for their respective international associations is four years and, therefore, they needed to align,” said Ntulumbwa.

He also said some associations said it would be a challenge for them to submit audited accounts due to financial constraints.

“We also took that into consideration and, as such, we will be providing them our auditor,” said Ntulumbwa

But Ntulumbwa said other suggestions were rejected.

“For example, there were suggestions that minimum educational qualifications for the positions of president, general secretary and treasurer should be removed on the basis that they are not practised by their respective international associations, but we felt that would be retrogressive,” he said.

Ntulumbwa said in view of that, the requirement of a bachelor’s degree for the president or chairperson and a diploma for the general secretary from accredited academic institutions will be maintained.

“Similarly, a treasurer will be required to have knowledge of book-keeping and a  a certificate or other qualification recognised by a relevant academic body in Malawi,” he said.

Other guidelines include holding an annual general meeting, having a strategic plan complete with related implementation plan in place and having an office with a permanent administrator.

Athletics Malawi (AM) president Kondwani Chamwala welcomed the change on the tenure of office in an interview yesterday.

He said: “As AM, we do not have problems with the guidelines because we feel they are not meant to punish us , but rather to ensure sanity.

“Our concern was the tenure of office because our international bodies such as World Athletics, the timeline is four years, so we felt it is important that we align with them.”

On his part, Golf Union of Malawi president Gift Chidya Gondwe said they too do not have problems with the guidelines.

He said: “But we have always advocated that Sports Council should help us in capacity building and by so doing, everything as regards the guidelines, will fall into place.

“The other issue is finances. We get little subvention from Sports Council while the bigger chunk goes into football which has not achieved anything tangible.

“Having said that, we are thankful to Sports Council for providing us with funding which helped us to set up a secretariat.”