Rival camps differ on BFA P10m debt
Mqondisi Dube | Friday August 14, 2020 11:49
The debt, according to BFA first vice president, Marshlow Motlogelwa had accumulated, largely, due to money owed as tax and commission due to Pula Sports Marketing for negotiating the then be MOBILE league sponsorship.
Motlogelwa said the liabilities were in the region of P16million against available funds of about P5million. The Botswana Premier League had to pay a large sum to the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) for tax owed.
'Sebego was the legal advisor at the time. How did he allow the BPL to be registered as an entity? They deducted money as VAT but did not remit to BURS. Only the BFA secretariat financials were presented to the annual general meeting, and they did not reflect from BPL finances. National team players were owed around P2.1million,' Motlogelwa said.
He added that Pula Sports Marketing was owed around P3.5million and Botswana Telecommunications Corporation refused to pay the agency fee.
'When I was on the committee, I made a decision to ring-fence all the debts, and ensure they did not increase. I introduced financial controls, while Sebego was politicking. This is the reason why I did not go with him in 2016.'
He said the association now has a clean bill of health, and it recently received a tax clearance certificate.
'If they argue that there were no debts, why is that there was no tax certificate. We have cleared, that is why we received a tax clearance certificate. The financials are externally audited and they signed them off. Even FIFA accepted the financials (with the deficit) as we had disclosed our liabilities,' Motlogelwa said.
He further said the BFA adopted zero-based budgeting, tightened controls within the regions and also targeted transacting, regarding FIFA funds, when the exchange rate between the Pula and the United States dollar was favourable.
'From the extra money that we saved, we managed to clear our liabilities,' Motlogelwa said.
But Sebego said when he left office, there was a P500,000 surplus.
'We had over P500,000 surplus in 2015, and suddenly a deficit of P10million in 2016. Pula Sport, which did not arise during our time, was settled, and the government paid directly,' Sebego argued.
'The VAT and PAYE liable all formed part of the debt, but arose from the BPL since BFA was not registered for VAT,' he said. Financials indicate the deficit was at P1.2million in 2017 and P2.8million in 2018. The BFA has said it has managed to stabilise the financial situation.
The bulk of the funding is from FIFA, with the association expected to receive around P34million, if it exercises the option of an interest-free loan.