Sports Council bemoans lack of accountability

 Newly-appointed Malawi National Council of Sports chief executive officer (CEO) Henry Kamata has called on sports associations to be accountable for the funds they get as subvention.

He warned the associations during separate meetings he had with leaders of various sports associations on Thursday at Kamuzu Institute for Sports in Lilongwe.

In an interview after the meetings, Kamata said: “Malawi National Council of Sports exists because of sport. These associations are the ones that are managing sport in the country.

“I needed to engage them to hear from them what is on the ground. How are they running sport? What challenges they have and what are they planning for the future? I have learned a lot.

“A lot of issues came out. One of them is funding. As Sports Council, we will go back to the drawing board and see how we can assist sports associations to build capacity in those that are managing the athletes.”

Malawi Olympic Committee president Jappie Mhango said the meeting was fruitful.

He said: “I think I am excited that few days in office the CEO has found it crucial to meet us. If things are to be like this, we are going to make a lot of headway.

“Sport is no longer as it was before. Sport is now big busness. And if the country is to reap from the business perspective, we need to start looking at sport differently. Even in terms of business perspective we need to invest massively if we are going to reap from the sector itself.”

Netball Association of Malawi general secretary Isaac Chimwala, who also met with Kamata, said they are delighted to have a chance to interact with the new CEO.

“I must first mention that we are delighted to have the CEO call us to this meeting. A journey can only start when you have agreed certain key areas that you must look at.

“This meeting was mainly to appraise him on what we have been doing in the past and what we plan going forward. He wanted to appreciate our programmes.

“He has been able to give us direction. His input to the discussions and deliberations was very professional and directional. We look forward to working with the CEO.”

Chimwala said Kamata’s observation on lack of sound grassroots programmes was spot on.

He said: “The key to his contribution is the fact that we need to look at the grass roots for sports to develop.

“We need to work from the grass roots. Our netball has arrived at a maturity stage where we have done everything we could have done.

“But we seem to have neglected support and development at grass roots stage. We need to have very active programmes for the youth because that is our future. We need to put our effort on grass roots netball.

Chess Association of Malawi president Mpilo Mizembe said the meeting gave them a chance to explain their challenges.

“I think it’s good that the new CEO called for this meeting, giving us a good interface where we can explain the challenges that we are facing and a clear guideline on what action Sports Council is going to take going forward.

“The main issue is on finding sponsorship. This is where we are struggling. We have a lot of activities we want to roll out, but the challenge is funding.

“We are very happy that Sports Council is also going to be approaching the corporate world to find sponsors for sport.”

Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said Kamata is expected to continue meeting other sports associations