Chronicle Editor
Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA Bulawayo Province council unanimously agreed to fire chairman Francis Ntutha and board member John Mutero for alleged misappropriation of funds after they failed to present financial statements at their annual general meeting.
This is the second time during his term that Ntutha has been relieved of his duties, with the first incident coming in 2019 when he was accused of paying himself US$1 020 without knowledge of his board.
However, the Zifa national executive committee ordered Bulawayo Province to reinstate Ntutha in 2020, saying the matter would be dealt with by way of summons.
Zifa chief executive officer Joseph Mamutse wrote to Bulawayo Province ordering it to engage independent auditors to examine their books for the period of the alleged offence, but that didn’t happen, as Ntutha reportedly told members at Saturday’s meeting that the province is broke to engage auditors.
Takawira Madza, who has been elevated to acting chairman, said findings by a finance committee appointed by Ntutha highlighted a number of irregularities in the provincial finances, including withdrawals without backing of payment vouchers.
The finance committee chaired by Lloyd Munhanga also discovered that there were no records of income through EcoCash and in some cases there were double payments of salaries.
The finance committee also discovered that the board had backdated its allowances to 2018 and in some cases, some workers were paid board allowances.
Also critical was that there were payments highlighted Covid-19, but their destinations could not be ascertained.
Madza said the provincial assembly had given Ntutha four months to engage auditors, but he failed.
“This meeting was supposed to have been held a fortnight ago, but had to be postponed to April 30 because we couldn’t constitute a quorum. The other thing is that there were no financial statements. What was being reviewed was the period 2019 to 2021 during which members paid affiliation fees and there were Covid-19 relief funds advanced to the province.
“In January, clubs asked Ntutha to get auditors to look into our books, but he said it was expensive to hire auditors and that is when it was decided that since we have a finance committee, which he appointed, let’s hear their report.
There were a number of inappropriate issues picked up by the finance committee, which include procurement without at least three quotations, and there were no source documents.
“After that, members reminded Ntutha that he was previously suspended for transferring money into his account and was reinstated on a technicality. The members then said since he could not defend himself on issues raised in the finance report, he should step down alongside Mutero, who was working with him during the period under review,” said Madza.
In the meantime, Madza will work with Otrick Siziba, Mkhululi Mthunzi and Makhanyiso Moyo as they await the Zifa election road map.
Efforts to get comment from Ntutha were fruitless as his mobile phone was unreachable. — @ZililoR
Online Reporter