Otniel Hembapu
Solomon Mudege, Fifa’s head of development programmes for Africa, last Friday wrote to the secretary general of the Namibia Football Association (NFA), Franco Cosmos, to express his concern with the NFA’s financial statements.
The NFA submitted its financial statements for the fiscal year ended 31 March 2021 to Fifa early last month, but the NFA’s auditors took a position not to express an opinion on the audited financial statements.
Mudege has since expressed concern with the auditors’ indistinct stance on the financial statements, saying the NFA’s secretary general, finance and information and technology (IT) manager, as well as a representative from the NFA’s audit and compliance committee should come forth and further explain all details around the financial statements.
“We have taken note of the position of the NFA’s auditor regarding “the other information” on pages 26 and 27. These pages provide the NFA’s detailed income statement and the distribution of the NFA’s funds, including funds received from Fifa. The NFA’s auditor states the following: “Our opinion on the annual financial statements do not cover the other information, and we do not and will not express an audit opinion or any form of assurance conclusion thereon.”
“As such, we would like to request a conference call between Fifa, the NFA secretary general, the NFA finance and IT manager, and a representative of the NFA audit and compliance committee. We kindly ask that you propose suitable dates and times for this conference call. Once we have valid clarifications regarding the NFA’s annual financial statements, we will request any further payments that may be due to the NFA,” said Mudege in a letter addressed to Cosmos.
Meanwhile, Mudege also communicated to Cosmos that the NFA will be receiving US$200 000 (which is about N$3.1 million) as part of Fifa’s Forward Programme for the year 2022 to help cover travel and accommodation costs for Namibia’s national teams.
Fifa will also be making another payment of US$100 000 (which is about N$1.5 million), which will go towards the NFA’s operational costs.
“The second instalment for operational costs will be paid in July 2022, and is subject to compliance with Article 6.3 and Article 15 of the Fifa Forward Regulations,” Mudege added.
- ohempapu@nepc.com.na