The Botswana Football Association (BFA) battle with the suspended Botswana Premier League Chief Executive Officer CEO) Bennet Mamelodi is far from over.
Mamelodi is fighting relentlessy to clear his name on charges of maladministration and yesterday filed an urgent application against the BFA seeking the court to set aside his disciplinary hearing and the forensic audit report.
According to the court papers filed on Saturday through his lawyer, Dutch Leburu, Mamelodi wants the court to determine the validity of the forensic audit conducted against him.
He wants the court to set aside the disputed forensic audit because he believes it is a witch hunt against him.
His argument is that the architects of the forensic audit wanted to build a case against him in order to fire him for the wrongs he did not commit.
Mamelodi further argues that there is no evidence that the audit report has been adopted by the BFA National Executive Committee (NEC).
He further reasoned that he was never interviewed during the process of the audit process.
The applicant was never accorded the opportunity to respond to the allegations as required by the labour law.
The applicant further dispute the charges he is facing because according to the BPL system and controls at the BPL office the chairman of the BPL board is the one who authorises transactions on behalf of the BPL Board. In his papers he argues that the findings of the forensic audit are misleading.
Mamelodi and his lawyer are disputing the report because of contradicting figures on the general ledger and that of the forensic audit. Allegations of tampering with the general ledger have raised questions as to why the forensic audit report and the ledger figures do not match hence more doubts on the factual legitimacy of the submitted ledger.
Mamelodi is also seeking the court to interrogate the details of the forensic audit report because they think procedures were not followed.
They further argue that the BFA does not have the financial policy regulations that are said to claim the BPL CEO committed wrong doing against them. The former BFA CEO, Kitso Kemoeng has also testified against that saying he was tasked with coming up with the financial regulation policy of the association in his affidavit.
Mamelodi was suspended in December 2016 pending disciplinary hearing on the findings of the forensic report. What is confusing is that the forensic audit report was concluded in January 2017. Was the BFA sincere in suspending the BPL CEO in December because the findings of the audit report were only concluded in January 2017?
The CEO will also be looking to the court to grant a stay of his disciplinary hearing due on Monday.
Several NEC members who talked to the Sunday Standard on condition of anonymity have confirmed they had not received the audit report or sanctioned it or adopted it.
The Sunday Standard can further reveal that the government has taken a keen interest in the matter and have written numerous letters to the BFA seeking a copy of the audit report, letters which the BFA never responded to. Government officials will be present at the BPL disciplinary hearing to appreciate facts of the matter.
Government is the chief financier of the activities of the BFA and as such they need to satisfy themselves that there was no wrong doing on the part of the officers and leadership itself.
