NAM picks a speck in financial report saga

News that the Netball Association of Malawi (NAM) has for the past six years failed to produce financial reports is not just disturbing but a mockery to the nation as well. It shows how some people take the nation for granted.

It is amusing that wise men and women in sports circles and institutions with a mandate to look into issues of checks and balances, including those with huge stakes in the sports, are silent as if nothing is amiss.

If delegates to the 2013 Mzuzu NAM elective general assembly were congratulated for quashing the deliberation of the financial report that was lacking, I would suggest that the sentiments be withdrawn, since they have failed the nation by not finishing the work they had started. Remember that it is the ending that mostly matters, otherwise look at the dribble by NAM—no financial report till now and the association has gone back to its sleeping couch, probably waiting for another elective general assembly to bring the report.

The sports world understands that some NAM affiliates are not happy with the development but have opted for a laissez-faire approach for fear of paybacks, which as a person who understand that many misjudge an advice or reminder of a neglected task as being unpatriotic or sabotage, and in Malawi of this era you would not even guarantee your position or safety, especially this time around when nobody knows who a real enemy is.

Neverthe less, on the basis that the NAM financial reports are long overdue (as some of them were needed six years ago), and that affiliates have a stake in the management of an institution they are affiliated to, there is nothing to fear about in voicing out a concern unless NAM is either an island or uses too much power such that its affiliates and stakeholders are just supposed to follow.

Financial reports are important in any institution as they act as a mirror of financial engagements. It is a known fact that key stakeholders sometimes require financial reports (audited and adopted) when releasing a next trench of funding, and it would not be extraordinary to see NAM failing to get some support if they will not work on this carelessness.

The elected members in NAM should know that staying six years without producing tangible financial reports defeats the whole purpose of transparency and accountability, and someone must feel ashamed of that.

However, if NAM does not need the report, we will not force the association to use the report, but we certainly will ask them to produce it for the stakeholders that include those who willingly or forcibly pumped millions of money for the good of the sport called netball.

In fact, good managers would not miss a calendar of producing financial reports since the reports also assist in gauging the performance and current status of your institution financially and otherwise. So NAM should remember that the situation created is not healthy for the sport as it brings in some discontent at the same time breeding mistrust. What would people who love the sport and justice make out about the sound funding NAM and the netball gets from the government and the private sector without financial reports for such a long period?

For an elected manager to come public that stakeholders should not despair because the financial report is still being prepared is something people I have talked to fail to understand, with some asking who between the two is in despair? And which is which dear readers; is NAM failing to hold the assembly because of lack of funding or lack of the financial report, or just a recipe of failure?

NAM should not waste time challenging that people should inquire from them whether the rumours of ‘NAM-gate’ going around in certain circles are true or not. The simple thing to do is just to submit the much sought for report to put the issue to rest. No press releases, either, otherwise in the absence of a genuine financial report the netball fraternity and the world at large will be left with no option but continue speculating and even link the failure by Queens to participate at the Africa Netball Championship in Botswana as being part of the game.