MOC appeals for good financial management

Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC) has pledged to continue building capacity for sports associations’ officials in financial management, saying it is key to sports development.

Speaking yesterday during the closing of a three-day financial management course in Lilongwe, MOC general secretary John Kaputa said most associations lack financial management skills.

MOC organised the course in partnership with Mzuzu University.

Said Kaputa: “Associations have to be able to detail expenditure in clear financial language if they are to win the trust of sponsors, be it government or private companies. Associations must also be able to have a solid financial plan detailing what they require to achieve a certain objective or goal.

“As MOC, we have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mzuzu University (Mzuni) to train sports administrators. Through this workshop, we are simply tapping into that MoU.”

He has since urged participants to implement what they have learned to transform sports management in the country.

Mzuni senior lecturer in Sports Management Daniel Harawa said without financial prudence sports will continue to stagnate in the country.

He said: “If Malawi is to grow the various sports codes, it is extremely important that each association should have well developed financial discipline that can attract various funders.

“We all appreciate that these associations have to rely on funding from different sources and to sustain that, there is a need for financial prudence.”

Maggie Chikuni, who spoke on behalf of participants, described the workshop as very enriching.

She said: “We have learnt a lot in the past three days. Among others, we learnt about internal control both administration and financial. Most associations tend to let things related to finance be dictated by the president and general secretary.

“This results in unnecessary expenditure and lack of accountability. We have learnt about filing, keeping records of every transaction.”