Machana takes over Zifa purse

Ishemunyoro Chingwere
IN a sharp departure from the previous administration, the Zifa board has ceded control of the association’s funds to the board member in charge of finance, Philemon Machana as the football governing board moves to embrace good corporate governance.
Machana’s predecessor, Bernard Gwarada, was on record protesting that he was denied access to the association’s books of accounts by Cuthbert Dube and chief executive Jonathan Mashingaidze, thereby making it impossible for him to carry out his duties as mandated by the Zifa assembly.
Gwarada, an acclaimed accountant, was eventually jettisoned from the board before he could apply his expertise to help the financially troubled board.
The current board has, however, moved in quickly to make sure it gets the best of service from its seemingly resourced board members, with Machana being given total control of the purse.
Interestingly, the business executive was not in the “Bhora kuna Phidza” campaign team and ordinarily, one wouldn’t have expected Philip Chiyangwa to hand such an important portfolio to a man who did not support his quest for the presidency.
“Yes, I am (in control of the purse),” declared Machana.
“Contrary to what a number of people think, we have a president who is not a dictator but one who consults his peers and never does anything without consulting.
“I will tell you right now that on Tuesday, we changed signatories to our bank account.
“There is nowhere the secretariat signs on their own. But for governance purposes as well, the board has said it won’t be signing alone. We have designed a cross signing arrangement where if a board member signs, then a member of the secretariat also signs.
“I have been requesting for information to do with our finances from the secretariat and I have been getting it.
“I have put my lenses on the association’s books and transactions and again nobody has complained that I have strayed so at this stage, without delving into what was happening in the past, I have really gotten everything that I have requested.
“What remains is for certain a system to be corrected but it’s a process that takes time and we request a little bit of patience,” he said.
Machana said the secretariat can no longer be accused of running down the association as everything that is done at the office is implementing what the board would have ordered.
“What we have agreed is that no single cent can be released without my authorisation and that of the president on behalf of the board.
“So we can no longer blame the secretariat for abusing funds without our knowledge.
“During the campaign, councillors raised a number of issues, most of which we are now using as leads and not necessarily as evidence to guide us.
“Some councillors are of the feeling that, among other things, money was being misappropriated and that there are no proper accounting systems to safeguard the resources of the association and avoid haemorrhages.
“There is not much coming into the association, but the little we are getting should be safeguarded.
“This includes leakages of gate takings from our home matches and in that view, we are in the process of coming up with the latest ticketing systems to make sure that we account for every ticket sale,” he said.
Machana said one of the best ways to make money was through cutting costs and the board is currently looking into that.