JB money sparks feud at Bullets

Barely a week after receiving their K25 million (about $60 000) donation from President Joyce Banda, Big Bullets have blown K10 million, a development that has sparked a feud between the treasurer Noel Lipipa and the rest of the team’s leadership.

However, the club’s general secretary Harold Fote has said the development is no cause for alarm, assuring that nothing fishy has happened.

According to a bank statement The Nation has seen, Bullets opened an account number 021000020629 with Nedbank on Tuesday, April 29 (a day after the President made the pledge and asked them to open an account), and as of last Wednesday (May 7) the account had a balance of K14 164 630.

The club’s treasurer Lipipa said the Nedbank account was opened without his consent.

“The donation by the President was made while I was outside the country and upon being informed, I contacted vice-treasurer Brian Ligomeka to deposit the money into our existing MSB (Malawi Savings Bank) account.

“But for some reason, he [Ligomeka] disregarded my instruction. As treasurer, I never authorised any payment although I hear that quite a substantial amount has been withdrawn, which is against the club’s constitution. So, if you want to learn more, talk to either Ligomeka or the spokesperson [Fote],” he said.

Ligomeka denied disregarding Lipipa’s instruction, insisting that when the donation was made, Lipipa was in South Africa and the rest of the team’s management agreed to bank it pending a meeting to agree on how much would be invested through Treasury Bills, fixed accounts and settle players’ transfer fees.

“That meeting will still be held soon because we are just waiting for the chairperson [Kondi Msungama] who is outside the country. It is not that the treasurer was ignored. I will do the necessary handovers when we meet,” said Ligomeka.

He also said he was not aware that part of the money had already been withdrawn.

“I am also hearing that from you because what I perfectly know is that the cheque was banked,” he said.

Asked if it were possible that the money could have been withdrawn without his knowledge, Ligomeka said: “Ndi zagulu [it involves a group], but as I said, the information I have is that when we got the cheque, it was deposited into our account.”

But Fote confirmed that K10 million was indeed withdrawn to offset pressing issues.

“There is nothing fishy about it. The thing is when we met, we prioritised to settle debts and pay players’ outstanding dues.

“We are heavily indebted and K25 million is just a third of our total budget. So, yes the expenditure is justified. For instance, we got a loan from officials amounting to K8 million to buy players and then players were also owed dues that we had to pay, we also need to buy equipment and have the bus repaired.

“There is a long list of debtors that include an overdraft at MSB in excess of K1 million, outstanding K1.5 million registration fees that we have to pay Sulom and backdated transfer fees for Dalitso Sailesi and Miracle Gabeya. We also owe Chenda Motel K3 million of which we have paid K1 million, then we also owe Crown Lodge about K500 000 [$1 190] and Brave Warriors are also demanding their 25 percent cut from the K3 million sale of Gabadinho Mhango,” said Fote.

He further said the move to open another account was approved at a stakeholders meeting held in April this year at Shire Highlands Hotel in Limbe that was attended by some trustees [Victor Msowoya and Gregory Madeya], supporters committee as well as members of the executive, excluding Lipipa who excused himself due to illness.

However, Madeya said there was no concrete resolution on opening another account.

“The issue was indeed tabled, but there was no resolution per se as it was supposed to be discussed further with the trustees. You can get more details from Mr. Msowoya who was the secretary,” said Madeya.

Msowoya could not be reached on Sunday.

But Fote insisted that the trustees verbally approved the proposal, considering the circumstances.

“The account was opened with the blessing of all stakeholders after noting that the one we had was overdrawn and we also had to change signatories since there is a new committee, a process that could have taken time. Nedbank also promised to give us a K3 million credit. So, considering all these circumstances, we saw it wise to open another account,” said Fote.

He said the signatories of the new account are the chairperson, his first deputy, vice-treasurer and GS.

Asked why the treasurer is not among the signatories, Fote said: “As I said, he [Lipipa] was outside the country. But he can be incorporated along with the chairperson of the trustees as per constitution. Actually, the bank is aware of that arrangement.”

In response to Fote’s explanation, Lipipa said no amount of explanation will justify their conduct because they were not supposed to disregard his instructions as the one legally entrusted with the team’s finances.

“Transparency and accountability are of essence and they will have to account for the money, failing which, necessary action will be taken,” said Lipipa.

On the other hand, Mighty Wanderers yesterday kept a tight lid on how much is left from their K25 million donation.

“Obviously, we have used a small tranche to meet operations and also clear arrears such as players dues and payment of transfer fees, but the bulk of it is waiting for a meeting which we will have on Sunday to agree on which could be a viable investment,” said the club’s GS Mike Butao.