Bullets raffle draw flopped

Big Bullets have admitted that their recent fund-raising lottery was a flop due to lack of planning.

Apart from the fund-raising drive, the raffle draw was aimed at identifying 10 supporters to accompany the team on the aborted trip to Polokwane in South Africa, for pre-season training.

The club’s general secretary Harold Fote yesterday said instead of making money from the exercise, it turned out to be costly and as a result the club owes money to some service providers.

“The initiative was a brilliant idea, but it was done haphazardly, without proper strategy. In the end, we incurred losses,” said Fote.

He said until now, the executive committee does not know how much was made from the exercise. He claims that they are yet to reconcile with ticket sales from the Centre and North.

“But should there be something, then it will just go towards settling debts incurred,” he said. Added Fote: “Honestly, we could have done better. We had no capital for the project and those that were running it were operating on credit.

“For instance, on a daily basis, about K67 000 was being spent for hiring a truck [K20 000], public address (PA) system [K25 000] and about 20 litres of fuel. Contributions for the expenses were made by the officials.

“There were also about 15 young ladies who were hired for promotion and they, too, had to be paid allowances and there were some days when they travelled to other districts such as Mwanza, Balaka and Mangochi and the cost for their accommodation and food came from the proceeds of the same exercise,” said Fote.

The firm that printed the tickets is also owed a certain amount, according to Fote.

He said the executive committee abandoned the project when it was realised that it was going off track.

“We have called for a meeting tomorrow to see how best we can handle the issues, such as compensating the 10 winners and meet the requirements set by the Malawi Gaming Board,” he said.

The Gaming Board has said Bullets’ raffle draw was illegal as the club did not follow lottery procedures.

The club’s treasurer Noel Lipipa said he was in the dark on how the exercise was run and how much was made.

Said Lipipa: “The raffle [draw] issue was handled by the GS while those that were actively involved in running the show were Isaac Jomo Osman [main supporters committee chairperson] and Dan Mbebuwa [executive member] and as regards the issue of proceeds, nothing has come to me.

“Actually, at a certain point, I questioned the authorisation of funding towards the project because I felt it was faulty.”