AS various Zambian sports disciplines prepare to face the 2015 challenges, it is imperative that this goes hand-in-hand with good corporate governance by all sports motherbodies.
Recently, Government warned all sports associations that they risk losing out on receiving financial help from the national treasury if their books of accounts are not audited annually.
It is strange and to some extent surprising that some sports bodies can hold an annual general meeting (AGM) without presenting audited accounts.
There are also other associations that just go about with their business and disregard the dictates of their constitutions with impunity by deliberately not holding an AGM, citing lack of resources.
It beats me to think why one should run an association and then fail to meet the affiliates to review the past year’s performance and plan for the future.
I am happy that Government has finally set a tone for all sports associations to follow.
The Sports Council of Zambia (SCZ) was mandated by Government to monitor all affiliate organisations and ensure all their books of accounts are audited annually.
Failure to adhere to this requirement will see SCZ withhold annual grants to the defaulting bodies.
Afterall the hallmark of good corporate governance is transparency and accountability.
It is a statutory requirement that each association presents audited financial statements annually as doing so also helps in attracting sponsorship.
Surprisingly, SCZ had not prepared audited accounts for several years and failed in this respect to present such to the councillors during the AGMs.
However, during the last SCZ AGM on December 20, the new board that was constituted in November 2013 presented audited accounts for four years (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012).
SCZ through its finance chairperson, Haroon Ghumra took the lead by ensuring the delegates to the AGM got the audited books of accounts for the first time after a long period.
These SCZ accounts for the four years in question were audited by a reputable firm of chartered accountants, Ernst and Young.
Associations need to take a leaf from the national motherbody’s example and begin to practice good corporate governance.
This means the administrators should learn to treat the associations they lead like a business where they have to ensure that they show their members what had been transpiring during the year.
They need to show what they received during the year, expenditure and surplus if any.
Let 2015 be the beginning of good corporate management by all sports disciplines in Zambia. For comments email:malungaf@gmail.com