More Skeletons Tumble From the ZIFA Wardrobe

Major overhaul needed at ZIFA House | The Herald

Audrey Galawu

The BDO audit report on the Zimbabwean Football Association shows yet another failure to account goods paid, as the association cannot explain the delivery delay of two buses after the payment was made more than 10 months ago.

The buses have reportedly not yet been delivered to ZIFA and no satisfactory explanation has been provided on the reasons for the delay.

This is in addition to other undelivered goods in transactions with a company in which a councilor has a stake.

https://zimbabwenow.co.zw/articles/716/zifa-audit-implicates-jonga-in-us800-000-murky-transactions

According to a ZIFA forensic audit report, ZIFA applied for funds to procure two buses under the FIFA Forward Development Programme 2.0.

Evaluation committee minutes held on March 15, 2021 showed that the committee agreed to purchase buses worth US$296,586.00 from FAW Zimbabwe which were the cheapest.

"FIFA agreed to fund the project and availed the requested funds, we established that payments were made to Emporium International, an international company affiliated to FAW Zimbabwe and to FAW Zimbabwe on 15 and 21 September 2021 in instalments of US$80,000 and US$215,000.00 respectively.

"We visited FAW Zimbabwe’s garage in Waterfalls and saw the buses and were told that the buses were ready for delivery to ZIFA. However, the ZIFA Human Resources Manager told us that the specifications of the buses which we saw at FAW Zimbabwe differed from the ones which were initially agreed by both parties.

"The buses we saw had no air conditioners, whereas ZIFA and FAW Zimbabwe had initially agreed on buses with air conditioners," reads the report.

The Human Resources Manager indicated that FAW Zimbabwe had raised the prices of the buses with air conditioners from US$147,500 each to US$171,000.00 each.

At the time of the audit, ZIFA had not yet signed the memorandum of agreement of sale which was sent by FAW Zimbabwe to ZIFA citing the difference in specifications as the cause for not signing the agreement.

Evaluation Committee meeting minutes held on the 15th of March 2021 indicated that quotations were sourced to determine who could supply ZIFA with equipment. The evaluation committee agreed that equipment for the project was to be procured from PNR Sports at a cost of US$53,200.24

“Despite the resolution made by the Evaluation Committee, the contract for the supply of the equipment was awarded to Rollertag Investments who got paid US$52,688 for the contract on 06 October 2021.

“Upon inquiry from the project manager, he told us that the decision was made by the Chief Executive Officer after he had made his own independent visits to the prospective suppliers where quotations had been sourced. He concluded that PNR Sports had no capacity to supply the required equipment.

“From the US$147,000 which was availed by FIFA for the introduction of youth league project, only US$52,668 paid to Rollertag was used towards the project and the remainder of the funds, (US$94,332.0025), was used for other purposes. This meant that these funds were not used for the intended purpose in contravention of the FIFA forward regulations,” further reads the report.