Ricky Zililo
The rot in Zifa’s lower structures was revealed by this week’s reports that Bulawayo Metropolitan Province acting chairman Francis Ntutha “loaned’ himself the association’s funds to pay schools fees.
It also emerged that Ntutha and members of his executive are in the habit of dipping fingers into Zifa funds paid by lower division teams in affiliation and other fees.
Ntutha loaned himself $300 for school fees on April 30 and signed a voucher at the insistence of the board member responsible for finance in the province Paradzai Matuka.
Most clubs in Division Two and Three struggle to pay affiliation fees and it’s criminal for Ntutha to then deep his hands into this money for personal use. Affiliation fees are meant to fund the day-to-day operations of the province as well as to pay salaries and rentals and not petty cash for board members.
What’s disgusting about this episode is that some club officials and Zifa provincial executive members don’t see anything wrong with what Ntutha did and are even defending his conduct, which breaks all tenets of good corporate governance. Those defending Ntutha see nothing wrong with him getting a loan from the province as long as it was approved and he pays it back.
What rubbish! Zifa is not some micro-finance lending institution, but a body that governs and should be promoting the development of football, and in Ntutha’s case in Bulawayo.
Ntutha and his board members are supposed to be employed elsewhere, as they are not full time employees of Zifa Bulawayo
Metropolitan Province. They should, therefore, be applying for personal loans from banks or other micro-finance lending institutions instead of milking dry an already struggling association, which they ironically promised to help seek funding for when campaigning to be custodians of football in the province.
Ntutha and his friends mustn’t forget that they’re mere volunteers that were only given a mandate to steer the Zifa ship and not to strip it.
They’re not entitled to those so-called loans whatever the case maybe. Only members of the secretariat can apply for loans from their employer if funds are available.
Ntutha and his like-minded board members are only entitled to board allowances and nothing more.
The presence of a voucher defence supposedly showing they abide by accounting principles is nonsensical. Whether or not they pay back the money is neither here nor there. The question is how much has been siphoned from the Zifa coffers under the guise of these so called loans?
If Ntutha and his board have the audacity to give themselves loans they are not entitled to, what stops them from being involved in underhand dealings?
They’re compromised and have exposed themselves to possibly corruption through kickbacks from clubs seeking favours.
Why are the clubs quiet in all this? Could it be that they are not paying affiliation fees and levies in full? If they do, why then are they quiet when there is rot in the provincial structures?
It’s shocking that this loan scandal doesn’t happen only in the Bulawayo provincial structure but is prevalent even at regional level.
I wonder what Zifa boss Phillip Chiyangwa, who has spoken about cleaning the image of the game is thinking or doing when affiliates, who are custodians of the game at lower ranks, abuse office like this.
Maybe as Zifa works on its new constitution it should include a clause that prohibits people without stable income from holding office lest they be tempted to dip their fingers into the cookie jar.
Chiyangwa and his board should encourage affiliates to have a clear guiding document in the form of a constitution or a code of conduct so that board members know their roles.
Demanding affiliates to submit audited financials to the national association would bring confidence to the corporate world or donors, who are sceptical to pour funds into Zifa for fear of abuse.
Which potential partner can really avail funds to Zifa when board members use the money for personal things instead of advancing the development of the game?