AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE President of Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), Wallace Karia said he is happy to see the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB), is investigating the misuse of funds meant for 2019 Under-17 AFCON preparations.
This comes after PCCB announced that they are investigating to trace all those who were involved in the mismanagement of funds donated by president John Magufuli and other stakeholders meant for the entire preparations of the continental youth football competition held here last year.
The announcement was made recently in Dar es Salaam by PCCB Director John Mbungo, who insisted that they have gathered enough evidence to track down those who were involved in the malpractice.
However, immediately after the PCCB announcement, TFF released a press statement stating that there was no any amount deposited in its official account for the U-17 2019 AFCON preparations of which president Magufuli donated 1bn/-.
But, speaking over the weekend, Karia said he is happy to see PCCB investigating the matter saying he has so far been called different names by people who wish the federation bad.
“For now, we should let PCCB accomplish their responsibilities and thereafter we can have something to say. I am one of the persons who delighted to see the issue being investigated such that soon, we will get their final results.
“If anyone in the federation including myself is found guilty, we will be ready for anything,” Karia said.
He added that as TFF, their number one priority was to see that the junior AFCON tournament ended well as such, those who thought it was mismanaged, have opted to take the matter to the PCCB.
“There was a special organising committee which was tasked to take charge of all preparations of the competition and I am sure that its members will have the required answers on how the donated funds were used but for me, I am happy to see that the probe going on,” he said.
In a related development, Karia disclosed that the current administration of the federation has been embracing transparency in its entire works saying some people just want to tarnish its good image.
“Since we came to power, we have been thriving to work transparently and in such doing, we managed to win a trust from FIFA, who prior to our arrival, had withdrawn from assisting the federation due to irregularities which emerged then.
“We had to work hard to win back the FIFA’s confidence in us which made them to resume providing money for various football developmental activities in the country,” he said.
He added that the money they receive from FIFA comes with strict guidelines which he said make it impossible to be misused.
“The current amount we have received has had its guidelines, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic we have used some of it to pay allowances of referees who were not paid for a long time,” he said.
He added that the Tanzania Premier League Board (TPLB) receives money to manage only the Mainland Premier League as such, the board is obliged to share that money to other leagues like First Division League (FDL) and Second Division League (SDL).
