Sports Council explains Queens’ funding delay
Malawi National Council of Sports says they are yet to provide funding for Queens’ allowances due to Netball Association of Malawi’s (NAM) delay to produce reports on recent engagements.
The council’s spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said this in reaction to reports that Queens’ players are reluctant to start camp training ahead of the imminent Commonwealth Games because of unpaid allowances amounting to about K9 million from the African Netball Championship and the Pent Series Tournament in Namibia over two months ago.
He said it was difficult to release the funds as the council had not yet received a reconciliation on how other funds were used for the same tournaments.
“We were supposed to get the reports from NAM immediately after the tournaments, but that did not happen. As such, the council could not provide more funding without first knowing how the previous allocation was used,” Ntulumbwa said.
“However, we have now just received the report, which has to be scrutinised. We will give a proper feedback on this within the week.”
NAM general secretary Isaac Chimwala yesterday admitted that they delayed to provide Sports Council with the report, saying it was by design.
He said: “Indeed we were supposed to present Sports Council with a report on activities and expenses long ago, but we delayed because we wanted ample time to write an error-free report.
“We wanted everything to be done in a professional manner. There were certain areas that needed to be clarified before the council’s perusal.”
After the African Netball Championship and the Pent Series tournaments, the Queens players were expected to receive K50 000 each for a win and K25 000 for a draw.
They played 13 games at the two competitions. They won 10, drew one and lost two.
The Queens, who have just been displaced from sixth place on Netball World rankings by Uganda’s She Cranes, are expected to start camping today with funding from the Malawi Olympic Committee (MOC) .
