BPL offices chained-up, top brass suspended.
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Wednesday March 30, 2016 10:02
The board wants a forensic audit carried out, which had reportedly left the BPL in financial doldrums before the season ends.
This follows a board meeting held on Saturday in Gaborone where a decision to recall the chairman and suspend two members of the secretariat was taken.
The meeting came after another meeting held earlier this month in which several clubs expressed concerns over the non-payment of grants.
At that meeting, the clubs reportedly learnt of the BPL’s financial situation in which most of the activities were initially underbudgeted, leading to BPL blowing the budget even before the season ends.
The clubs have since challenged and sought answers on what led to the financial mess. The board has since appointed Gaborone United (GU) chairperson, Rapula Okaile as its interim chairperson while Horatio Mahloane will act as CEO while investigations continue.
“There were concerns from some people, so we hear, on whether the resolutions we took were procedural. But we called the BFA president (Tebogo Sebego) and informed him about it. He recommended that we speak to the association’s legal advisor, Onkagetse Pusoentsi.
“He advised that a letter of suspension cannot be written without giving preliminary reasons for that suspension. We have since done that,” one of the board members informed Mmegi Sport. At the Saturday meeting, the clubs apparently also sought answers on the issues surrounding the loans given to other Premier League clubs by businessman, Jagdish Shah.
The three clubs; Motlakase Power Dynamos, Green Lovers and Sankoyo Bush Bucks reportedly requested bailout from Shah to try and keep their clubs running with the league nearing an end.
“What was of concern to other clubs was the fact that a Premier League stamp was used in the letters, although they say the office did not source those loans for those clubs. We got an explanation that the BPL only acted as surety, but we were not convinced with that answer because such arrangement has been done before by other clubs without having to involve the BPL,” a source said. Motlakase had reportedly asked for a loan of P100,000 while both Green Lovers and Sankoyo requested for P50,000 each.
Meanwhile, by midday yesterday the BPL offices were chained. The board had reportedly decided to lock the offices to allow investigations to be carried out without any interference. Mmegi Sport has been informed that a second padlock had now found its way to the BPL office’s door. It was not clear at the time of going to press who was behind the use of the second padlock.
Sebego said he had asked the two parties to submit a report by yesterday.
“On the basis of the foregoing, execution and implementation of the all resolutions adopted at the meeting shall be stayed forthwith pending submissions of composite report from both parties,” Sebego said in a statement. The BFA CEO, Kitso Kemoeng in the meantime will run the BPL office.