FKF CEO Barry Otieno.FKF.

FKF CEO Otieno smells foul play in hurried audit by Sports Ministry inspectors

Football Kenya Federation CEO Barry Otieno has questioned the motive behind the order by the Ministry of Sports Cabinet Secretary Ambassador Amina Mohamed to audit the former's accounts.

The directive came a couple of days ago after concerns by some stakeholders over the alleged misappropriation of funds. The auditors have been camping at Kandanda House from Friday and by Monday they were done with their task.

However, the top official has questioned the limited time taken to investigate and go through the files which he believes would have taken at least four weeks.

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FKF concerned with limited time by inspectors 

"Following the Cabinet Secretary's directive a few days ago, we received the inspectors from the ministry and went through certain FKF documents. As a federation we believe that we provided all that was asked," Otieno told Goal.

"It is important to note that [the documents] were requested under one day to produce documents dated from 2016... we presented this on Friday. 

"As a federation, we believe that we have complied with the directive from the CS. Normally, our statutory audit will take somewhere between four to six weeks. This is always done by reputable firms. Cumulatively, I feel the inspectors have been here for eight hours. 

"I don't want to pre-empt the report, I am only saying we are concerned with the limited time they have had, to carry out this inspection and whether conclusively, they can arrive at an opinion whether good or bad, whether positive or negative that this is the situation at FKF and these are the remedies that we are recommending."

Nick Mwendwa of FKF and Amina Mohamed.Goal.

'We don't know what informed the inspection on FKF'

Otieno remained optimistic the outcome will be used to help the federation improve and there are no hidden agendas from the involved parties.

"But we have done our part, we will continue doing our part. Even after this, just for the records and for every Kenyan to know is that consistently and as required by the 2013 Sports Act, we have done budgets to the government in good time for all the money that we have been funded, and filed returns. Ideally, up to today, we don't know what informed the inspection," he continued.

"However we welcome it, and we hope that the report that will come out will reflect the position of the federation despite all the concerns that we have in regard to the timelines of the inspection.

"We will leave it to the public to judge whether an institution like FKF can be conclusively inspected in eight or so hours cumulatively. These are the questions we will ask when and if the report is made public.

"I want to believe this inspection was directed with utmost good faith with an objective to improve in certain areas if any."

The CS is expected to make her report public on Tuesday or Wednesday and advise the way forward.

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