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| Columns |
| Sport On |
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by
Gracian Tukula, 19 September 2003
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16:14:21
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Where is integrity?
The best news for sports lovers this week must have been the announcement by the Auditor General on Wednesday that his department is moving in to help all of us make sense of the financial goings-on at the Football Association of Malawi (Fam).
It is good news because, as I said last week, the nation deserves to know the truth about the performance of the association which, if I need to say it, is a public body.
Fam is one of the country’s most significant public bodies as it runs a game which excites passions like you would never see elsewhere. It is, therefore, important that the body is run by people of the highest integrity.
By integrity I mean people whose primary interest is in contributing to the development of the game and not just their CVs or their financial positions. We do not expect them to offer their services for free but we want every tambala they make in the execution of their duties to be earned honestly.
I also mean people who are not paranoid. People who know what they are doing and do not depend on others — be it a political big brother or a sycophant media — for their survival. I also mean people who do not preoccupy themselves with fighting off real or perceived enemies at the expense of their core jobs. In short, I am talking of people with a spine.
There is no doubt that the audit exercise that the National Audit Office is expected to carry out will tell us whether the current executive fits in the billing that I have outlined. And that if it does not, lessons will be learnt and that things will change for the better. No one can pretend that things are fine and I have made it a personal crusade to see to it that things change.
But maybe I am being too excited. What guarantees are there that the audit report will not be trashed if it is leaked to the media before being presented to authorities? Why are legally mandated bodies not taking action even after the Malawi Revenue Authority has already confirmed some wrongdoing?
I hope Bwana Henry Kalongonda will not be relieved of his duties pending further reassignment way before the audit exercise is over, if it will start at all. You think I am being too critical? Then perhaps you have not lived in Malawi long enough. Or have you ever heard of a man called Gilton Chiwaula? Read on. |
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