Athletics under spotlight

ATHLETICS Namibia (AN) will be put under the spotlight after the Namibia Sport Commission (NSC) identified a lack of financial accountability and basic administrative skills among the ones in charge.

NSC Chief Administrative officer Rusten Mogane told The Namibian Sport yesterday that there were “a lot of problems needing serious attention in athletics, on both the financial and management fronts”. “The commission intends to root out the rot that has affected the image of the code negatively in recent times,” said the former national team football coach.Mogane said athletics is an A code in the country and should have the best possible administrators in charge who can handle its affairs in a professional manner.Mogane said the NSC would conduct an investigation into the affairs of the code, which is currently headed by Alpha Kangueehi as the president, and final recommendations on what needed to be done would be made known towards the end of next month.Investigations will be directed at why the executive committee in two instances failed to follow the rules according to the Sport Act of 2003, by firstly sending a team of athletes to Morocco without a coach, while another was that a team that competed at an athletics championships in Botswana did not have the original athletes who were selected.The original competitors for the athletics championship in Botswana were replaced with a totally different team a few days before their departure.Mogane said AN’s financial reports had not been submitted to date, while the progress reports were marred by a lot of discrepancies.Another concern that will be assessed is that the positions of treasurer and secretary general have been vacant for almost a year.Mogane said this is unheard of in a sport of such high regard and something needs to be done.”We only hear about one person in athletics and that is its president, where are the others? The secretary general should be at the centre of the sport administratively, but it seems that there is nothing going on there,” he said.At the moment, Elizabeth Kamutuezu is the acting secretary-general, but the position of treasurer has not been filled yet.Kangueehi is also in charge of the finances of the body.Mogane said athletics officials lacked basic management skills and a major shake-up was needed to improve the situation and thus lift the image of the sport which once flourished without any administrative hiccups.”We at the commission are very serious about this and we will get to the bottom of these issues.The parents of the athletes have even been complaining about various issues in the sport and we don’t want this type of situation,” he said.Neither Kamutuezu nor Kangueehi could be reached for comment.”The commission intends to root out the rot that has affected the image of the code negatively in recent times,” said the former national team football coach.Mogane said athletics is an A code in the country and should have the best possible administrators in charge who can handle its affairs in a professional manner.Mogane said the NSC would conduct an investigation into the affairs of the code, which is currently headed by Alpha Kangueehi as the president, and final recommendations on what needed to be done would be made known towards the end of next month.Investigations will be directed at why the executive committee in two instances failed to follow the rules according to the Sport Act of 2003, by firstly sending a team of athletes to Morocco without a coach, while another was that a team that competed at an athletics championships in Botswana did not have the original athletes who were selected.The original competitors for the athletics championship in Botswana were replaced with a totally different team a few days before their departure.Mogane said AN’s financial reports had not been submitted to date, while the progress reports were marred by a lot of discrepancies.Another concern that will be assessed is that the positions of treasurer and secretary general have been vacant for almost a year.Mogane said this is unheard of in a sport of such high regard and something needs to be done.”We only hear about one person in athletics and that is its president, where are the others? The secretary general should be at the centre of the sport administratively, but it seems that there is nothing going on there,” he said.At the moment, Elizabeth Kamutuezu is the acting secretary-general, but the position of treasurer has not been filled yet.Kangueehi is also in charge of the finances of the body.Mogane said athletics officials lacked basic management skills and a major shake-up was needed to improve the situation and thus lift the image of the sport which once flourished without any administrative hiccups.”We at the commission are very serious about this and we will get to the bottom of these issues.The parents of the athletes have even been complaining about various issues in the sport and we don’t want this type of situation,” he said.Neither Kamutuezu nor Kangueehi could be reached for comment.