By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
A system review report launched on Thursday shows the Freetown City Football Club (FCFC) did not account for the sale of players between 2014 and 2018. This is one among many other administrative and financial improprieties that the Anti- Corruption Commission uncovered.
FCFC is a club owned by the Freetown City Council. The affairs of the team are directly managed by a committee set up by the council.
“The team manager and the technical body, players were sold, and nothing was accounted for,” Systems Analyst at the ACC, Muctar Manansu Conteh said.
FCFC is a Premier League club in Sierra Leone. Last season the team finished 7th in the league with 30 points. The first half of their league campaign last season was blighted by player concerns about salaries.
“We took four years (as the scope of our report); 2014 to 2018. When you want to do a comparative analysis, you don’t just take one year, you take three years and above so you can make better comparisons. As you can see there are variances in the figures from one year to another, either there are increase in figures or there are decrease.” Conteh spoke generally on the entire report.
The report did not only focus on FCFC but all other departments within the purview of the council.
ACC’s report also found out that players were employed as council staff rather than given contracts as players for FCFC. This also saw managers abuse the system by firing players without giving them their benefits as staff of the council.
“The team manager and the chairman of the board replaced most of these players. They took Mr A’s salary and transferred it to Mr B then Mr A becomes dormant.” Conteh added.
The report is a shocking revelation of how a public football club has been managed over the years.
The Acing Chief of Administration at the council, Bangalie Foday Marrah told Politico that they are planning a major change in the management committee of the team in light of what the report has highlighted.
“We are looking at the football team presently and we are taking some action. We want to set a very robust management team, so we can see what is going on there. And we are making some changes to the committee,” Marrah said.
However he did not say how long this will take. The Premier League is expected to start soon, a lack of proper administrative system could come back and haunt the team in the middle of the season.
As part of the recommendations, ACC said the council should take full responsibility in giving the players contracts and paying them as players of FCFC rather than staff of the council.
“The management of FCC should ensure employment of players are formally terminated with their terminal benefits,” the report reads.
Another recommendation stated, “Monies misappropriated be accounted for.”
The council have three months as per law to start the implementation of these recommendations. Council authorities have already expressed willingness to implement the recommendations.
© 2019 Politico Online
