Some affiliates of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation will meet soon to discuss the possibility of bringing a vote of no-confidence against President Venold Coombs and Treasurer Marvin Fraser.
The vote is being considered in light of the qualified audited financial statements that the Federation has received for two consecutive years – 2011 and 2012, a source familiar with the plans told I-Witness News, on condition of anonymity.
“We can’t mention names (of the affiliates involved) now, but we expect to serve them (Coombs and Fraser) with the notice within the next two weeks,” the source said.
The source said affiliates were concerned about the lack of supporting documents for the disbursement of over $90,000 from the Federation’s account and some EC$55,000 that is “missing” from the lottery booth operated by the SVGFF.
Explaining the basis or a qualified opinion on the Federation’s financial situation as at Dec. 31, 2011, auditors said, “Because of internal control deficiencies surrounding tournament gate receipts and miscellaneous receipts, we are unable to satisfy ourselves as to the completeness of local tournament gate receipts and other income. Consequently, we are unable to determine whether any adjustment might be necessary to cash and fund balance as of December 31, 2011 and match revenues, other income and cash flows for the year then ended.”
They however said that except for the effects of the matter described in the basis for qualified opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Federation as of Dec. 31, 2011.
A similar basis was given for the qualified report on the financial statement of 2012.
The auditors also said that because of “internal control deficiencies surrounding disbursements” they are unable to satisfy themselves with respect to expenses amounting to $96,485 which are included in administrative expenses, Win-in-CONCACAF-with-CONCACAF (WICWC) youth development expenses and local federation programme expenses.
I-Witness News understands that at least one member of the executive could be encouraging affiliates to bring a motion on no-confidence.
Lloyd Small resigned as 1st Vice-President of the Federation last Tuesday, ahead of the general meeting on Saturday.
I hope they would take a look at the constitution now in place. All the problems for the past years stem from how the rabid board in instituted. This is not the first time money has disappeared from on top the table. Money has been disappearing under the table for years, because of the buddy system in selecting board members.
This no confidence vote will only replace dishonest culprits with other dishonest culprits. There need to be an emergency meeting to rectify the constitution to stop this thievery. All members of the board must be sent from the local football groups from around the island. It doesnt matter if there are 20 or 40 members on the board, because an executive committee can be chosen from the lot. What is important here is that the various groups will have a representative on the board. The answer lies in not shuffling the chair on the Titanic with a no confidence vote, but by removing the broken one.