Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) Chief Executive Officer Dr Henry Kamata has emphasized the importance of accountability among sports associations in the country regarding the funds they receive from various stakeholders.
He made the remarks during meetings with seven sports associations held at the Kamuzu Institute for Sports in Lilongwe.
‘’The Malawi National Council of Sports exist because of sport, and these associations are the ones that are managing and running sports in the country so I needed to engage them to hear what is being done on the ground, how they are running sports in the country, what challenges they have and how they are planning for the future
‘’So, some key issues come out, one of them being issues to do with accountability. Most sports associations fail to account for public money that is given to them which is a big challenge so, I have encouraged them that this is money that belongs to the public and we need to account for every penny,’’ explained Dr Kamata
Originally MNCS planned to meet six sports associations including the Malawi Olympic Committee, the Netball Association of Malawi, the Handball Association of Malawi, the Chess Association of Malawi, the Judo Association of Malawi and the Volleyball Association of Malawi, the Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Association of Malawi was later included on the agenda
Reflecting on the meeting, Jappie Mhango president of the Malawi Olympic Committee explained that the meeting came at the right time.
‘’This is the right thing and if continue to move like this I think we will see a lot of transformation going forward. As the Malawi Olympic Committee, we are very excited about the meeting we had. The meeting focused on strategizing how we can move forward, sports is now big business and if the country is going to reap from sport, we need to start looking at sports differently and to start investing in sport massively,’’ explained Mhango.
Some of the issues that were discussed during the meeting included issues to do with infrastructure development, investing in technical officials, grassroots development and resource mobilization.
Similar meetings will take place with other associations.