Unless Government comes to the rescue of the Botswana Football Association (BFA), there is a risk that the association could close shop. According to sources at Lekidi Football Centre, if the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Duncan Kgame had his way, he could have ordered the closure of the business on Friday.
“There is a serious problem of cash-flow at the association and we can’t survive under the current situation. We’re operating on a negative balance. The CEO has addressed BFA staff about the situation because there is nothing to pay them at month-end. If he was the one calling the shots, he could have closed business last week,” said a BFA insider
The source further said the association finds itself in this situation as a result of mismanagement of funds. It is expected that the National Executive Committee (NEC) will approach Government and the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC) with a cap in hand in the coming few days.
When contacted for comment on Saturday morning, Kgame was cagey about the details.
“There is nothing like that. When you call your staff and tell them to reduce costs, it’s normal. It’s something I’ve been saying to them since January,” he said. The situation is, however, said to be worse than Kgame would have us believe as he had to use his cash to transport some of the people who attended the Disciplinary Committee cases in the past week, something that Kgame would not want to talk about.
“The association would not be in this situation but it’s unfortunate that everyone does things the way they want. The worst thing is that even members of the NEC are not helping the situation. The cash which was raised by companies for the Zebras during the Africa Cup of Nations cannot be deposited into BFA account because we’re already in debt,” pointed out a source.
Sunday Standard can reveal that some of the association’s members have been misusing funds for the past 24 months. Recently when BFA hosted a retreat in Palapye, most of the members used their cars to travel to the north yet there was a bus which was hired to take them there.
“The idea was for them (members) to claim for mileage when they come back from Palapye. In the first place, there was no need to host that retreat considering our financial state but because some people wanted to push their own agendas, the retreat went ahead,” added a source who did not want to be identified for fear of being seen to discuss internal matters with the public.
There are reports that BFA popped up P54 000 as part of the travel costs for the association boss, David Fani, when he went to Gabon for the AFCON tournament.
