04 Mar 2020

The Botswana Netball Association (BONA) audit report for 2017/2018 has revealed that the association is non-compliant with the Registrar of Societies.

Speaking during a press conference in Gaborone on Tuesday, BONA president, Malebo Raditladi said upon assumption of office in 2017 the new committee found the association’s governance in disarray.

“From the onset we did an audit to try and establish the problems so that we did not find ourselves at the dead end during our tenure,” she said.

Regarding the issue of compliance, the president said the association’s affiliates did not comply with the registrar of companies and were as good as non-existent.

She said the association’s executive committee was in negotiations with affiliates to adhere to the procedure. She added that they were expected to register afresh so that they could be recognised as their affiliates.

In a further attempt to put their house in order, Malebo said they wrote to Botswana National Sports Commission (BNSC) requesting for assistance to help them comply with the registrar.

“BNSC chipped in and an audit for 2018/2019 was carried out and submitted to the registrar with the hope that we will get our compliance letter, but it did not happen as another issue of debts arose,”she said.

She noted that BONA was in debts amounting to about P2.1 million.

While they got their grant from their mother body, the association is financially bankrupt as they used the grant on existing debts, and are awaiting anybody who they owe to come forth.

“These huge debts crippled our year plans and progress. The grant we were allocated for this year’s activities has been channeled to debts which we found,” she said.

BONA secretary, Kelebogile Maplanka said the second audit also failed as an affidavit was not done due to insufficient evidence as to how the funds had been spent in 2017.

“There were a lot of unaccounted funds and we still have to trace the finances. Even the International Netball Federation (INF) was not given the report and that is a draw back on its own,” she said.

She said with their finances all over the place, the association was failing to attract sponsors, and that it crippled their preparation for the upcoming African and World championships.

The U-21 team is expected to leave for Uganda in May for the African qualifiers which will determine their fate for the World championships billed for Fiji next year.

She said the team was summoned for camp two months prior to the competition.

Maplanka expressed worry towards the teams’ preparedness given the short time ahead of major competitions.

She said they were hoping for things to fall in place.

“I suggest that the BNSC should have a clause in its constitution which governs volunteers because I want to believe that if there were rules governing the committee made up of volunteers we would not be in these problems,” she said.

She explained that because nothing governed the committee, the previous committees could not be held accountable for any misuse of funds or paperwork mix-ups.

The secretary said it was difficult for the committee to operate with all the mistakes done by people who had nothing binding them to account.

On a new development, Maplanka said they had started a grassroots development programme for netball players (Re ba bona ha) expected to commence in Maun soon. ENDs