THE Guyana Football Federation (GFF) will have lots to answer at Saturday’s Extraordinary Congress, following the revelations of their Audited Financial Statements for the year ending December 31, 2016, which was done by Ram and McRae, Chartered Accountants, Professional Services Firm.

In fact, the primary purpose of the congress is to present the audited statements for 2016 and for it to be approved by the Congress.

Ram and McRae, upon completion of the Audit, could have offered only a ‘Qualified Opinion’, where it stated that in the ‘Basis for Qualified Opinion’, the GFF did not maintain adequate documentation of transactions with suppliers and consequently, Ram & McRae could not determine the accuracy, validity and completeness of accounts payable and accruals stated 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 & 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 $16,834,029 was supported by receipts and other audit evidence.”

The GFF president Wayne Forde could not have been reached for a comment on the findings, while Chronicle Sport reached out to a number of the Federation’s affiliates.
While some affiliated associations’ representatives refused to comment, stating that they will reserve their comments for Saturday’s congress, some spoke and asked to remain anonymous, out of fear of victimisation.

One affiliate said at the Congress, the GFF will have to answer why wasn’t there any finance committee meeting for more than a year, up until recently, and why the audit and compliance committee hasn’t been constituted after two years in office.
Chronicle Sport was informed that since August 26, the GFF Finance Committee, a constituted body, only met on November 23, 2017.

In May, the GFF held a congress, but absent from the agenda was the Financial Report, and according to another affiliate, “the GFF has changed plenty Financial Controllers since Forde came in, so of course they’re going to be irregularities. It will be interesting to see how Mr Forde and others respond to this because they came in championing good governance and accountability.”

Indeed, upon taking office following a period of being governed by the country’s first FIFA-installed Normalisation Committee, Forde said his presidency should be remembered by their transparency and proper management of the game.
“When you have over $45M unaccounted for in the debts and claims of income, of course that’s enough to make you wonder where all the money went and who were these debts paid to,” another affiliate member said.