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TOPIC: ohh poor bakili bullets

mabogwe

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Date: Apr 10, 2005

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It never rains but pours for Bakili Bullets. After losing eight key players to other teams, creditors are on the teams’ neck demanding their money totalling about K9 million. But the incumbent executive has refused responsibility, saying there is no documented evidence to back the claims. The debts were incurred by the previous committee. The club’s former vice treasurer Kondi Msungama said this week that the club owes Maggie Kamwendo of Desa Garments K832,000 for blazers used during the team’s involvement in Caf Champions League last season, S and K Steel Furniture K1.7 million for players’ furniture and Block Buster Electronics K1.2 million for players’ electronic equipment. Apart from that, Bullets also owe Kips Restaurant K1.3 million for meals, Mpingwe Lodge K500,000 for accommodation. The outfit is also yet to pay former chairman Hassam Jussab K3 million for camping and allowances and game bonuses for players. And according to general secretary Willie Phalula, the club has also received another claim from Zomba Police Band which is demanding K300,000 as payment for playing during the half time at one of the Caf games. But responding to the claims in an interview this week, Phalula said his committee does not owe anybody money. “My files do not show any records regarding such claims. In short, we don’t owe anybody something. There are no documents whatsoever justifying such claims and people should not waste their time coming to us claiming money. “If these things were recorded, we were going to inherit the debt, but even during the hand over ceremony, nobody made a mere mention of the debts,” said Phalula. He also said that Kamwendo’s debt was a personal deal with Msungama, a claim Msungama denied. “Mr Phalula should understand that I was making transactions on behalf of the club and not on my own behalf,” said Msungama. Phalula also wondered how food could cost up to over K1 million. He stressed that his committee will not allow any person or organisation to bring invoices at this time when they let the former committee leave office without demanding their money. Asked whether the committee would pay the creditors when they get their sponsorship from their sponsor Bakili Muluzi, Phalula was very puzzled. “How can we pay when we do not recognise the debts? And why did the creditors not bother the former committee before the elections when they knew that the committee was going away?” He asked. The GS said that the people who were previously running the club are alive and as such the claims should be directed to them. But in a separate interview, Msungama said Phalula and the committee should accept the debts because there is documentation which he claimed Jussab is keeping. “They [new committee] has the audited report which was presented to our trustees and the sponsor. All the receipts for all the claims are also available...they are with Jussab,” said Msungama without indicating why the documents were not presented to the new committee. Jussab said the receipts were given to the auditors and that the new committee should use the audit reports to see whether the claims are official or not. “I gave all the necessary documents to the trustees and the auditors. Anyway, they will see the evidence in court,” said the former BB boss. Kamwendo said she has written the new executive on her money and but it is yet to respond. “What I want to do is to meet them first. I have already written them and they said they will give the date of the meeting and I am expecting a response... But if anything fails, I may go to court,” she said. A Mr Patel of S and K Steel Furniture feared the issue would make them lose their money and said: “We will try to photocopy all the documents and present to them”. “They [old committee] were us promises and we are still waiting. If they don’t pay us, we will take a step because we have waited for so long,” he said. Kips Restaurant director Shaffique Giga simply said: “They haven’t paid. I don’t know where the issue is and they have not communicated to me on any developments,” said Giga, adding that a standard meal for one person costs K270 and for a 32 member club, it costs K8,370. Interestingly, Kamwendo, S and K Steel Furniture, Blockbuster, Jussab, and Kips Restaurant said they have documents to back up their claims. Mpingwe Lodge could not be reached for comment. The club’s former treasurer Isaac Nkuwu could also not be reached for comment as his phone went unanswered. Rashid Nembo, one of the trustees said the hand over ceremony between the two clubs has not yet been concluded. “We had a meeting at the Blantyre Sports Club but we did not finish the handover. If there are any documents remaining, they will be presented at the [second] ceremony,” he said, saying the two committees are yet to organise another meeting. Prior to the club’s elections, trustees turned down a request by the former executive committee members to resign, telling them to sort out the financial mess in the club first. The debts saga comes at the time when the club is in financial problems. Phalula was quoted this week as saying financial woes in the team are taking a toll. He said the club had not got any response from sponsor former president Bakili Muluzi on the K9 million budget it presented. This contradicts what the former president’s spokesman Sam Mpasu said. He said early in the week that Muluzi had already met the Bakili Bullets officials and “they were sorted out”. __________________ ejsteytler

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