World football governing body, FIFA is set to investigate a host of financial transactions carried out by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) following an audit into the continent’s ruling body.
A joint CAF-FIFA task force believes more information is necessary and recommends further investigations into several areas, including CAF’s dealings with French company Tactical Steel.
The deal with Tactical Steel in 2017 was notable as CAF cancelled an order worth just under $250,000 with sportswear company Puma to take up an alternative order costing four times as much with Tactical Steel, a company with links to a close associate of CAF President Ahmad.
The Task Force’s recommendations come after FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura’s six-month tenure as General delegate for Africa ended earlier this month.
Samoura was appointed to the role last August in a bid to help improve the governance of African football.
When her role ended, the joint task force delivered a series of findings, recommendations and proposals to CAF’s top executives at a meeting in Morocco on February 2.
While some of these findings focused on improving infrastructure, refereeing and competitions on the continent, there was also a ‘100-point action plan’ drawn up with regard to good governance.
The recommendations includes the following:
-Reviewing financial payments made between Caf and Lagardere, the French media company that used to operate a billion-dollar television and marketing deal relating to Caf’s leading football competitions
-Carrying out due diligence on payment from Fifa development fund – Fifa Forward – and Caf itself to all of Africa’s 54 member associations as well as the six zonal unions.
-Investigating allegations of possible mismanagement and misappropriation of funds linked to the Caf Centre of Excellence in Mbankomo, Cameroon.
-Investigating potential fraudulent bank transfers and clarifying ‘the circumstances around (various) incidents to rule out insider involvement’ – and ‘if necessary, file a criminal complaint and take legal action to ensure the recovery of the stolen amounts’
-Extending the scope of the audit to include the years 2013-14 – and explore ‘the lack of documentation related to financial transactions’ prior to 2015.
Other reforms being pushed by the Task Force include fundamental changes to the way in which CAF is structured, the imposition of term limits for both the CAF President and Executive committee members and the introduction of an independent investigatory unit.
Among a long list of ideas are a desire to install ‘robust compliance procedures’, ‘internal auditing’ and the implementation of a whistle-blowing hotline and policy against retaliation of whistle-blowers.
