By Tom Degun
October 16 – Domenico Scala, the chairman of the FIFA Audit and Compliance Committee, believes the reforms his team are making to football’s world governing body are helping to make it more clear and transparent.
It was last year that FIFA decided to subject its governance structure to extensive reforms and subsequently established a new Audit and Compliance Committee.
The new committee was given significantly greater responsibility than its predecessor, while Scala was appointed as the independent chairman at the FIFA Congress less than six months ago at the suggestion of the Independent Governance Committee.
But despite having only been in the role for a short period, Scala believes the Committee is already helping to make positive changes at FIFA.
“The Audit and Compliance Committee has already had two meetings,” he said.
“At the first meeting we approved a so-called whistle-blowers system, which we will implement by the end of this year.
“We have also chartered our task and included that into the organisational regulations, which we have recently reviewed.
“These organisational regulations will detail how this Audit and Compliance Committee works – these organisational regulations need to be approved by the FIFA Executive Committee.
“And we will also tackle the development activities at FIFA – that’s a large piece of the activities at FIFA.
“I attended the last Development Committee meeting at the end of September.
“We are also defining guidelines for these development activities going forward.
“So I think we’ve tackled a number of topics in the last five months.”
Scala (pictured above, left, with FIFA President Sepp Blatter) added that while the current standard of operation at FIFA is impressive, the Commission can help the governing body improve further still.
“I think there are a number of areas where FIFA has been at the forefront,” he said.
“I think the financial reporting standards are very high.
“In fact, FIFA reports its financial numbers according to international accounting standards – that’s been the case since 2002, so it has been in a leading position.
“But there are areas in which I think FIFA can improve.
“The compliance programme is something, the establishment of a Code of Ethics which regulates all FIFA officials is important.
“So there’s room for improvement, but I think we’re starting at a very good level.”
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