…As Incumbent LFA Veep Speaks of Accountability Problems
Incumbent Vice President for Administration, Pennoh Bestman, at the weekend said the Liberia Football Association lacks accounting principles. The statement came against the backdrop that stakeholders are yearning audit.
Addressing representatives of women football in the country, Pennoh said he had carved an accounting manual for use by the LFA, which was adapted by the executive committee, but added that Madam Wesley through the secretariat kept it in dustbin to date.
The regime of Madam Izeta Wesley, President of the Liberia Football Association and former cheering squad member, cum women youth chair of Invincible Eleven (IE), has been unable to to unite its staff and instill proper accounting.
The national league is poorly organized as winners at the end of the season are given post-dated cheques, while it is said that clubs operate in deficit, for what they earn at the end of the season cannot commensurate expenses just two matches, least to mention of the overall season’s expenses thereby dispiriting clubs and players alike and lowly motivating.
The clubs are unable to compete in international or CAF competitions after winning slots to represent the country. The national team is a celebrated minnow on the continent; in fact, the various national teams have since gone in slumber.
A well constructive program is lacking to take the game to the next level. The relationship between the LFA and the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MYS) is normally acrimonious, thus affecting the growth and development of the game. Again, FA vice Pennoh Bestman who has quite close to Izetta, recently lauded the LFA needs one will break the lasting jinx between the MYS and LFA. He said Izetta has failed to breach that gap. “You stakeholders need to elect someone who will mend fences between the two entities if football is to go forward; I believe Musa Bility has got a platform good enough to not only scout sponsorship for the game unite all stakeholders”, Pennoh said.
As elections of the Liberia Football Association (LFA) draws near, the president of the Liberia Association, Cllr. Izetta Wesley, is reported to have snubbed audit which her critics say stakeholders have been yarning for.
The camp of serious rival in the ensuing LFA contest for leadership positions says the attitude on the part of the incumbent leadership of the association has the propensity to deny stakeholders of their right to financial report.
It can be recalled that stakeholders, through the congress last September, mandated the LFA to conduct a comprehensive audit of the financial records of the football house before the pending March elections. However, it is incomprehensible that Madam Wesley and her acting secretarial undermined the decision of congress by what was considered as the LFA administration’s refusal to cooperate with auditors.
Since her ascendancy to the LFA, it is said that the LFA has never presented stakeholders any finial report. There are indications that some stakeholders are planning to make the incumbent the leadership of Madam Wesley to account for every penny she handled at the LFA.
During her more than six years of leadership as president, Madam Wesley reportedly has gone bankrupt as the LFA’s coffers at the Ecobank are virtually empty in the face of an annual US$250,000.0 and US$ 100,000.00 from the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) respectively.
As president, Madam Wesley is said to have been receiving such huge amounts, deciding how it is expended and approving its usage, without accountability - audit.
There is indeed hardship, which seem unending as long as the "iron lady" turned rubber lady remains at the apogee of such high profile football position. The future is therefore oblique, uninspiring and discouraging as there is no glamour of hope. Things have since gone haywire, hope have turned into despair, joys have turned into sorrow, success have turned into failure, the positives have become negatives, promotion have turned into retrogression and boom have turned into hardship.
With just few of the many problems catalogued, the critics of the Wesley administration say there is a need not to reelect the Izetta Wesley Administration on account of lack of accountability which has been impeding the country's football development.
The LFA head is said to be suffocating the growth of the game and is a serious embarrassment to the game's improvement and transformation that must be obliterated come at the post of the March 20, this year.
But attempts to get to Madam Wesley did not materialize; investigation continues
No comments:
Post a Comment