By David Owen
December 8 – Beneficiaries of FIFA’s $350 million Financial Assistance Programme (FAP) are falling down on basic record-keeping requirements, in spite of the crisis that has brought the governing body to its knees, leading acting secretary general Markus Kattner to highlight “major deficiencies”.
Kattner uses a letter to FIFA members enclosing 2016 FAP application forms to list seven such deficiencies that he says were reported this year.
These were:
1. “No special bank account maintained for FIFA development-related transfers,n signatory powers not well defined (single signature instead of joint signature)”;
2. “Expenses not documented sufficiently by third-party documents such as invoices, delivery vouchers, cash receipts, etc. Expense documents not readily available at the time of audit”;
3. “Cash payments to third parties/employees, invoices not well documented”;
4. “Payments made to related football parties (leagues, referees’ associations and other sports organisations) not properly monitored by the member association”;
5. “Expenses reported differ substantially from amounts budgeted and approved by FIFA”;
6. “Financial investments (eg interest-bearing accounts) and loans reported as expenses”;
7. “Non-compliance with local laws and regulations regarding employees (no written contracts, PAYE taxes and social security contributions not remitted properly) or with VAT regulations”.
Stating that FIFA’s objective is to “minimise” such deficiencies in future, Kattner serves notice that control of the body’s development funds is to be “reinforced” with “specific instructions” on the yearly audit to be sent later.
FIFA has budgeted $900 million for development spending over the 2015-18 four-yearly cycle culminating with the Russia 2018 World Cup. Nearly 40% of this – $351 million – is earmarked for FAP.
Established by FIFA in 1999, FAP is designed to “motivate and empower the associations and confederations to organise development programmes that meet their needs and strengthen football and its administration in the long term, particularly in the areas of infrastructure, youth football and technical development”.
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