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The Malawi Cricket Union (MCU) has taken its president Riz Osman to task for failing to produce audited accounts for the past four years that he has been at the helm.
The union has further taken a hard line on its boss refusing to start the MCU major league until Osman calls for an annual general meeting (AGM) where he should produce the audited accounts and give a concrete explanation as to why he was handling finances when the cricket body had a treasurer.
A well placed source alleged that funding from international cricket organisations has been going direct to Osman and the treasurer Atlaf Panjwani was not involved in the financial transactions.
“For example the union gets US $20,000 (about K2.2m) annually from the International Cricket Committee (ICC) but for the past four years Mr Osman has not explained how the money was used.
“Actually Mr Panjwani resigned as treasurer in frustration because he was not being involved in the handling of finances which was his role. Everything was being done by Mr Osman, he run the show himself,” explained the source.
Osman confirmed that he indeed handles finances of the union but defended himself saying: “I personally have been involved in the development programme since it started four years ago.
“I monitor the finances from my office here, keeping the track of it and I found that I am quite confident and I know where the money is going...the bulk of it goes towards development, so it was right under my nose that’s why I was in charge of finances myself”.
He also insisted that the reason why he keeps finances for the union is to make sure that most of it is going towards the intended purpose—development.
Osman also said he could not take the accounts for auditing because he has been “very busy with the union’s development programme as well as my personal business which has grown over the years.”
He added: “Since I took over the chairmanship in the year 2000, we have not had audited accounts but we have been compiling income expenditure accounts and they have always been in draft form to be finally audited”.
However, Osman, who is regarded as the driving force behind the development of the game, took it on the chin and confessed that it was indeed too much for him to head the union as well as run its finances when it had a treasurer.
“That is my fault I have been handling the finances, I failed to hand over to the treasurer last year due to commitments, I never actually got round to find time to arrange the accounts, so it is definitely my fault,” confessed Osman.
He added: “I think I should have been a bit more prepared in the sense that I have let some room of suspicion coming up but with the general confidence that everyone has in my handling in the development programme and financial side as well, I have voluntarily taken over the extra responsibilities and as a result it has come to a point where I have accepted that it cannot work in this manner. We have to share responsibilities.”
The Cricket Union boss further confessed that Panjwani threw in the towel because he was being side-lined on the issue of finances.
But Osman insisted that all the figures are in order.
“I have handed over all the financial documents to Ernst and Young who are certified accountants and they are currently working on them.
“My conscious is clear, all the money was used for intended purposes, right now we have K4 million in the bank and sponsors have so much trust in me because I am a very straight-forward person, I do not use short-cuts,” said Osman.
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