adminPetros Kausiyo Deputy Sports Editor
BEACH soccer chairman Joseph Musariri believes the key to turning around ZIFA lies in instilling financial discipline and following the tenets of corporate governance through a strict accounting system monitored by the board.
Musariri has thrown his name into the hat to contest for a place on the ZIFA board when the association’s assembly meets in Harare on December 5 to choose a new leadership.
The 53-year-old Harare corporate executive was a member of the ZIFA finance committee but resigned from the sub-committee alleging that their functions were being frustrated by the association’s chief executive, Jonathan Mashingaidze.
Musariri was also part of the assembly that met in Harare for an extraordinary general meeting on October 3 at which the councillors resolved to revoke the mandate of the previous board led by Cuthbert Dube, culminating in the requirement to hold fresh elections next month.
But after serving in the affiliate body — Beach soccer — Musariri believes he now needs to contribute to the administration of the game at a higher level in the board.
Yesterday the chief executive of the Shipping and Forwarding Agents’ Association of Zimbabwe unveiled his manifesto which is anchored on the need to bring accountability to ZIFA, which he feels forms the basis of trust between the soccer mother body and all its stakeholders.
Musariri reckoned that the December 5 election needed to address the key issues that led to the councillors revoking the mandate of the previous board if meaningful change is to be made to the way ZIFA is run, arguing that his presence in the assembly stands him in good stead to articulate the association’s envisaged turnaround strategies.
“Apart from my financial background and vast corporate business administration experience, one of my biggest strengths in this election is being a member of the current ZIFA council and a former finance committee member.
“I was part of the process that removed the previous administration and thus I carry the vision, wishes and aspirations of how the ZIFA reform process should be undertaken. My familiarity with the system will come in very handy in order for the new board to achieve its mandate in the short two years that it will serve.
“I also had the privilege of having been selected by council to be part of a small working group that worked with a consultant to produce the draft ZIFA Strategic Plan in August 2014.
“Needless to say, this document remains a draft which was never work-shopped or deliberated on and adopted by council. The experience and insight into ZIFA that I got in this process is extremely invaluable and I intend to make use of it if elected into the new board.
“My previous efforts to cause reform were frustrated by the previous administration, resulting in my resignation from the finance committee out of frustration and my subsequent suspension by the board for attending a council meeting that made the first attempt to revoke the mandate of the failed administration.
“Fortunately, the suspension was eventually lifted when wise counsel prevailed.
“As a current member of the ZIFA council that ousted the previous board, I am very clear on what the ills were and what my fellow councillors expect in order to correct them and to bring the much needed credibility to ZIFA as an institution,’’ Musariri said.
Musariri pledged to advocate for greater involvement of the councillors in the administration of football, accusing previous boards of making the assembly a body of bystanders.
“The councillors expect to be involved in the administration of the game through its various structures. This way they will become part of team ZIFA and not to be bystanders and let the game be run by external forces and get the blame when things go wrong. The board must succeed or fail together with the councillors.’’
It is on “integrity, accountability and transparency’’ that Musariri seems to have anchored his campaign on, with the president of the of the Federation of Clearing and Forwarding Associations of SADC also demanding that ZIFA should regularly produce audited accounts as a hallmark of integrity.
“There is need for the board to regain the confidence of the ZIFA electorate, FIFA, the Government of Zimbabwe, the corporate world and the whole family of football. This will be best achieved by exercising a high degree of integrity, accountability and transparency in the administration of ZIFA affairs.
“Accounting systems with checks and balances that have a clear audit trail must be put in place in order to minimise the occurrence of malpractices in the handling of finances and maximise detection of irregularities. Periodic management accounts will be necessary to keep track of the association’s financial performance.
“ZIFA accounts must be audited religiously on an annual basis. That is the hallmark of integrity, accountability and transparency. When I realised that this was absent in the operations of the previous board and that I could not do anything to change the status quo, I resigned from the finance committee on March 13 this year, barely a year after my appointment.
“The upcoming elections have offered me with an opportunity to rejoin the ZIFA administration at an appropriate level where I will be able to directly influence decisions.
“In order to clean-up the association, a forensic audit of the whole ZIFA administration must be a priority for the new board in order to identify any ills and take corrective action. Establishment of proper policies and procedures are essential in order to monitor and evaluate the goings on at ZIFA. The association is a huge institution which cannot continue to be run in a “mafia” style which has seen most of the activities and decisions being carried out on an ad-hoc and irrational basis.
“Financial discipline based on the “eating what we kill” approach is what I will advocate for as the basis for all future budgeting starting with the 2016 budget’’.
Musariri said ZIFA could not continue to bank on funding for which they would not have received concrete support.
“It is wrong in principle for ZIFA to craft its budget based on uncertain future income such as Government support without a commitment from the expected source of income. Constitutional reforms will also be necessary in order to attend to some governance issues that are presenting challenges in the running of ZIFA,’’ said Musariri.
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