FAM justifies ‘failure’ to present expenditure report

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) first vice-president Jabber Alide says it is not mandatory for the body to present its expenditure reports during budget consultative meetings.

He made the statement yesterday in reaction to reports that the 2021 budget consultative meeting in Lilongwe on Saturday was adjourned because the body’s affiliates demanded a full report on last year’s expenditure.

Alide, who chaired the meeting, said such reports are only presented at annual general meetings, but FAM agreed not to proceed with the meeting in the absence of the expenditure report and reconvene after at least four weeks following a ‘fair look’ at a special request on the same by some member associations.

He said: “That meeting was internal and it had nothing to do with expenditure report. All our previous budget consultations with the affiliates are done without that.

“However, as chairperson of the meeting, I decided to adjourn it because I believed the request from the affiliates was fair enough.”

Northern Region Football Association general secretary Masiya Nyasulu agreed that the expenditure report was not supposed to be part of the meeting, but they needed it to clarify some grey areas in the proposed budget under review.

He said: “We needed the report because some issues in the proposed budget were not adding up and we needed a reconciliation of last year’s budget before deliberating the new one.

“For instance, the new budget talks of acquiring three new vehicles when the same was already done in the previous one.”

His Central Region counterpart Bernard Chiwiruwiru Harawa said it is important that FAM should iron out all the issues that were raised by the affiliates before discussing the proposed budget.