Sports governing bodies urged to check bank accounts

PETALING JAYA, Dec 7 (Bernama) -- Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria has called on all sports associations in the country to review their respective accounts to ensure accountability as well as transparent financial governance.

He said this is to ensure money disbursement of a national sports governing body is transparent without any negligence or doubt on the part of those involved in managing the financial accounts of the association.

"It should be a warning for all sports associations to quickly look at their account books to ensure that everything is accountable and the people responsible for the account report (execute the trust properly) after what happened to the Malaysian Rugby Union (MRU) which is facing a breach of trust case.

"Don't take it lightly because it involves people's money and sponsors, if you don't engage professionals, things like that will happen," he told reporters after the announcement of the national athletes nominated in the Top 5  categories of the Sports Icon Awards (AIS) here today.

Mohamad Norza also recommended that sports governing bodies appoint individuals with accounting background to assume the position of association accountant.

"We should apply professional values in our administration to be more successful in the sports industry by investing into a simple accounting software for RM2,000 or RM3,000 to help sports associations set up more transparent and orderly finances," he said.

On Monday (Dec 5), MRU filed a police report on a case of breach of trust suspected to have occurred in the body's bank account and the amount of losses is not known yet.

It is suspected to be carried out by one of its staff who could not be contacted and traced.

Touching on the organisation of AIS, which is held for the first time by Harian Metro, he said: "I congratulate Harian Metro for holding AIS that gives recognition to athletes and hopefully it will continue in the future."

-- BERNAMA