Delays in auditing as well as boarding of some of the Botswana Africa Youth Games Organising Committee (BAYGOC) have delayed the folding down of the committee.
The Organising Committee is now expected to have folded by the end of November this year. The committee had set itself the end of this past month of September as the day it would have folded up, a target which they have since failed to meet.
According to the BAYGOC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tuelo Serufho, while his committee had wished to have closed this past month, the current circumstances had prevented them from doing so.
Despite the failure to meet their own internal target, Serufho said this should not be a matter of concern as the committee is still working within the time frame given to them by the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA).
“While we had set ourselves the end of September to have closed all our business and dissolved the committee, it should be remembered that our contract with ANOCA stipulated that we should fold within six months, which for us is the end of November. Within that time, we should have given ANOCA a complete audited report and this is what we are currently working on,” the BAYGOC CEO said.
He said at the moment, the committee is still conducting an external audit before it can consider folding up.
“We have already done our own internal audit and we have now called on private auditors, namely PriceWater House Coopers, to do the external audit and this process is ongoing,” Serufho said.
With issues still to resolve, Serufho said it would have been improper on their side to fold up. The BAYGOC CEO however pointed out that as part of their folding up plan, only a few very essential personnel is left at the BAYGOC offices while many of the committee’s staff has since been released.
On the alleged issue of misappropriation of funds and whether anyone has been called in to account, Serufho said all this will be done once the audited reports have been finalized.
“At this moment, we cannot confirm or deny any misappropriation of funds issues. However, if anything is amiss, we expect the reports to show as such and its only then that we will let the law take its course,” he explained.
The BAYGOC CEO promised that a very thorough audited financial report will be availed to all stakeholders when the committee folds up its business at the end of November.
“A lot of the taxpayer’s money has been used to finance the games and we owe it to the Government and the public to give them a credible report. We also had some sponsors on board and they also need to know how their monies have been spent,” he explained.
Apart from the Government and sponsors, Serufho said ANOCA also expects to have both the audited financial reports as well as an overall report of the games.
