National Sports

OPC orders Civil Sporting probe

The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) has instructed Civil Sporting Club board of directors to, within three weeks, investigate allegations that the executive committee has been failing to account for gate revenues and player transfer fees.

The development comes against the background of allegations made by the club’s supporters committee in an open letter to the OPC in which they declared that they had dismissed the entire executive.

In a letter to the board, the OPC says the allegations are serious and, therefore, need to be investigated.

“Considering that some of the reasons contain serious allegations, especially those involving failure to account for funds, we call upon your committee to investigate this issue and report to this office within a period of three weeks,” it says.

Dated February 13 2019, the letter quotes the allegations which the supporters levelled against Civil Sporting’s leadership.

Signed by Kiston Beni, on behalf of the Chief Secretary to the Government Lloyd Muhara, it reads in part: “The supporters have advanced the following reasons as the basis of their decision to have the executive committee dissolved.

“The committee incurred K13 million debts which it has been unable to settle. The committee has not been paying bonuses and signing-on fees. The committee [also] failed to account for money realised through the sale of Righteous Banda amounting to K4 million.”

The other claims are that the executive committee members “have not been attending meetings with supporters when invited and that “most committee members have been replaced along the way without carrying out proper election procedures”.

The supporters also allege that the executive committee defrauded the club K4.5 million, claiming it was transfer fee for the Malawi Under-20 striker Peter Banda, who did not sign for the club.

The Civil board chairperson Moffat Chitimbe said he has not seen the letter because he has not dealt in any matters related to the club recently.

“I have not been at the club for the past two weeks because I am away doing field work. I will return over the weekend so by then I believe I will have seen the letter,” he said.

Chitimbe also said he had no knowledge about supporters lodging their complaints through the OPC.

“I have no idea. They obviously didn’t copy us the letter. Ideally, they were supposed to come to us first before taking their grievances to the OPC,” he said.

OPC has also copied the letter to the Civil Sporting executive committee.

In an interview yesterday, club general secretary Ronald Chiwaula acknowledged receipt of the letter, but dismissed the allegations as baseless.

“The supporters seem not to know how the finances at the club are handled. If they had done thorough analysis they could not have been making those allegations,” he said.

Chiwaula said the committee’s conscience is clear and will not lose sleep over the investigation.

“We have been honest in handling the finances. But you must understand that sometimes the resources are not adequate that’s why we fail to pay players’ dues and incur debts,” he said.

Related Articles

Back to top button