GFF hosts successful Extraordinary Congress

Dec 20, 2017 Sports, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...raordinary-congress/

No money of the GFF is missing – Forde

The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) successfully hosted an Extraordinary Congress on Saturday last where all the agenda items were unanimously approved, including the GFF’s Audited Financial Statements and Consolidated Accounts.

The Extraordinary Congress, which was held at the National Resource Centre, Georgetown, and saw the attendance of 18 members, also saw the unanimous vote of the GFF 2018 Budget by a 17-member vote with one abstention.
In giving remarks at the post-congress press conference, GFF’s President, Wayne Forde said the Congress achieved much and he was pleased with the interaction had: “Today marks a very successful Extraordinary Congress. Every item that was brought to the floor from the agenda was passed unanimously. We dealt with some very heavy items today; today was heavy lifting at the GFF Extraordinary Congress but I am pleased to report that the members responded very positively. We had some very engaging conversations on every aspect of the operations of football as it relates to the items on the agenda. We took some very bold decisions today.”
Below are the key agenda items approved:
1. GFF AUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND CONSOLIDATED ACCOUNTS 2016 – Seventeen (17) members voted to approve the accounts and one member abstained.
2. 2018 BUDGET – Seventeen (17) members voted to approve and one abstained.
3. REVISED TOURNAMENT LEVY – The membership approved 3% levy on all tournaments.
The levy structure will be presented to the Regulations Committee for review. The committee is chaired by Mr. Eton Moses from Buxton United FC and that committee will develop the regulations to govern the levy. The revised level is a 3% against the total prize money or the total gate income, whichever is higher of the two.
4. UPDATE ON 2018 MEMBER SUPPORT INITIATIVES AND PROJECTS APPLIED TO FIFA FOR 2018 – This includes the upgrading of three grounds – Georgetown, Linden and Rupununi. Nine and a half million dollars ($9.5M) will be allotted to the development of each ground.
* Three vehicles will be acquired – brand new team bus, 15-seater mini-bus for the Federation and a 4×4 pickup for the technical department.
* The Federation will build capacity of the Regional Member Associations (RMAs). Among the key areas to be focused on are: Rental of offices for each RMA. The said offices will be equipped with necessary stationery and equipment (printers, computers and necessary tools required to operate an office). The GFF will also fund salary of the office staff. The stipend for the operational cost for each RMA has been increased from fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) to one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). These have all been presented as a project to FIFA for funding.
5. COMPETITIONS SCHEDULE – The 2018 Competitions schedule was presented to the Congress and showed the consolidated football activity that will bring greater regulation to every aspect of football including street football.
6. TERMINATION OF THE CHAIRMAN OF THE DISCIPINARY COMMITTEE – A motion was unanimously passed to terminate the appointment of Mr. Sanjeev Datadin as Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee and the motion was supported by a 16 – 2 secret ballot vote in accordance with Article 38 of the GFF Constitution.
Forde also took the opportunity to reiterate the position of the Executive Committee that the finances of the GFF are in safe hands: “Our goal in 2017 is to present a financial report without any qualification. We are working on developing management accounts reports that will come out every quarter and will be shared with the general public and the membership.
We wish to get to a level of financial transparency that is not only necessary to restore confidence to the operations of football but they are the conditions that have been laid out to us by FIFA. The vote of the approval of the finances today takes us one step closer to full restoration of funding from FIFA.”
The auditors have been able to adequately explain to the membership that the qualification contained in the audit report was based on third-party confirmation of payables.
The auditors also reiterated that no money of the GFF is missing, has been stolen or has been embezzled by anyone including the staff of the Federation and the Executive Committee.