HIGHLANDERS Football Club auditors Grant Thornton are currently evaluating the financially-troubled club’s accounting systems before the year-end audit, treasurer of the club, Jerry Sibanda, confirmed yesterday.
Fortune Mbele Sports Reporter
Auditors from the accounting firm were on Wednesday at Barbourfields Stadium during the Highlanders league match against FC Platinum. Sibanda took them through the turnstiles to show them how cashiers go through their work as part of their operation before the end of year financial audit.
Sibanda yesterday said the accountants were in the process of evaluating the systems and they were currently going through all the club’s entities before submitting a report to the Bosso’s leadership and making recommendations for improvements.
“Their main aim is to learn and study the systems to see if they are correct for Highlanders. What they are actually doing is to know the systems so that they know where to start,” he said. There could be a perception that money could be stolen by the cashiers, but if that be the case, the money that is being stolen is not Highlanders’ money because there are many stakeholders. What we record as Highlanders is the net pay after all the other stakeholders have had their share.”
The Bulawayo city council gobbles 20% of the gate takings while Zifa, the Sport and Recreation Commission and the Premier Soccer League get 6% each with the league also getting 12 cents per ticket, with the police getting 10% to 20% depending on the number of details, according to Sibanda.
He said the auditors wanted to conduct their exercise during the Mbada Diamonds Cup quarter-finals double header that featured Bosso-Triangle and How Mine-Black Rhinos at the weekend, but Highlanders said the tournament did not belong to them.
“After going through this exercise they will evaluate the systems. The executive and the board agreed in July that after that, the auditors will then be invited for the financial audit of our books as soon as our season ends. This is in line with recommendations that were made by the auditors at the beginning of the year and they are just following up on that.
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“Yesterday (Wednesday), they were at the clubhouse in the morning. They came to BF in the afternoon and also had the chance to watch the game. Today (yesterday) they will be at the club offices and they are going through all the club’s entities that include Manwele Beer Garden and The Hlabangana Lounge at the clubhouse,” he said.
Highlanders were given the lease to run Manwele in Mzilikazi by the Bulawayo City Council and Grant Thornton gave the thumbs up to the beer garden which made a profit of $10 681 in five months last year, but Hlabangana Lounge has been a white elephant for a long time with the clubs also under fire from the Bosso family for underutilising the clubhouse which has become an eyesore over the years.
It is yet to be seen how Manwele has performed this year.
Sibanda said Hlabangana had since been handed over to the board and is projected to start operating by the end of the year.
“We expect Hlabangana to be operating by the end of the year. It is being managed by the board. It was handed over to the board at the beginning of the year,” Sibanda added.
Another area likely to attract the attention of the auditors is the sale of Adidas replica jerseys in which Bosso is expected to recoup 7% from the sale of each T-Shirt which costs $50.
But that is being handled by the club’s principal sponsors BancABC. Sibanda said they have to date, received 400 jerseys and sold 200 and money received from the sale is banked with the financial institution.
At the beginning of the year, Grant Thornton advised Bosso to set up a workable accounting system to manage the club’s finances, as the club continued to be saddled with debts of over $500 000.
Philip Ndlovu, a partner in Grant Thornton told the Highlanders annual general meeting at the time that the club’s accounting systems were not viable and the club was declared broke and unable to service its creditors.
Bosso was then advised to engage quality staff, increase training and produce monthly management accounts and be prepared for an audit.
