FAM wants qualified accountants for treasurers

FAM has said it is drafting a policy to make it mandatory that all aspiring treasurers for its 12 affiliates should have accounting background.

Football Association of Malawi’s president Walter Nyamilandu said this after noting that people trusted with funds in the respective affiliates do not have the expertise in handling finances.

“We need efficiency in handling of funds at all levels of the game; from teams to regional leagues and all other football committees.

“Most of our affiliate’s treasurers do not have any accounting background, yet they are entrusted with huge sums of tax payers’ money, which in most cases is not properly accounted for. Football’s picture in terms of handling funds is not good out there because of this, so we need to clean our image.

“Some of our affiliates are holding elections this year, they should ensure that people nominated for that post are qualified accountants,” he said.

Nyamilandu’s observation came after Sulom treasurer Tiya Somba-Banda, who is a chartered accountant, was the only person who commented and questioned a number of issues in the FAM’s audit report at the AGM last Saturday.

“I do not know anything about figures and Tiya [Somba-Banda] saved us by highlighting important issues which could have gone unnoticed. So, that shows the need to have qualified people in such positions,” added Nyamilandu.