THE Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and Chronicle Sport are seemingly divided over the publishing of the Federation’s Audited Financial Statements for the year ending December 31, 2016, which was done by Ram and McRae, Chartered Accountants, Professional Services Firm.

In Chronicle Sport’s December 14 Edition, the newspapers reported in the article written by Rawle Toney, that president Wayne Forde and his executives will have lots to answer for, following the revelations of Ram and McRae’s findings and report.

Ram and McRae upon completion of the Audit, could have only offered a “Qualified Opinion”, where they stated that in the “Basis for Qualified Opinion”, the GFF did not maintain adequate documentation of transactions with suppliers and consequently, Ram and McRae were unable to determine the accuracy, validity and completeness of accounts payable and accruals slated at $89,881,316 in the financial statements. Of this amount, a total of 48,320,142 was supported by third party confirmations and other audit evidence.

“Additionally, adequate documentation for expenses paid during the year under review, totalling $2,319,499 was not provided during our test of controls,” Ram and McRae said in the basis for the qualified opinion.

According to the findings of the Financial Audits, the GFF “did not maintain adequate documentation in respect of game and other income stated at $21,051,698 in the financial statements. Of this amount, a total of $16,834,029 was supported by receipts and other audit evidence.”

However, the GFF in a release yesterday believes that the article set out to mislead the public by giving the impression that funds/monies have gone missing.

“The qualification on the audited financial statements is a consequence of procedural issues. Many of the procedural errors that have contributed to the qualification have been addressed with continuous improvement of the financial systems and controls being implemented,” the GFF release stated.

The Federation noted that the audited financial report will be presented to the members at the Extraordinary Congress scheduled for tomorrow, during which all pertinent explanations will be given, following which, the audited financial information will be shared with the general public.

But Chronicle Sport, and Toney, who is in posession of the report, stated that the article simply reported on the findings of the auditors’ report, and quoted Ram and McRae.

The newspaper maintains that the report is accurate and challenges the GFF to highlight one line, or instance in the column, that misrepresented the Auditors’ report and how could the article be misleading, since it never as much insinuated that monies were missing, but rather unaccounted for.

“Nowhere in the article was it implicitly or explicitly stated that there were any acts of dishonesty on the part of the GFF. In fact, I only touched the surface of Ram and McRae’s finding,” said Toney.

According to Toney, “I never injected my opinion, but rather that of the Auditors. This is not the first time a report of this nature was leaked to the press, and in fact, I ensured that I was offered qualified guidance before penning this article.
This current GFF executive came in touting good governance, and is afraid of anything that would probably pull the wool from over the eyes of their affiliates.”

Meanwhile, the GFF said their president and Executive Committee remain steadfast to its campaign slogan of transparency and accountability and avail itself to answer any questions or clarify any matter that the GFF members or members of the public may have relative to the GFF’s 2016 account.