GFL treasurer returns this week
-retains Harmon as attorney
By Steve Ninvalle
Stabroek News
August 13, 2002
Treasurer of the Georgetown Football League Daune Campbell has confirmed that she will be home before the end of the week in an attempt to clear her name following a financial saga that hit the Georgetown Football League last week.
Campbell has been fingered in the alleged misappropriation of approximately $500,000 from the GFL coffers but has denied that any money is missing. Contacted in Barbados yesterday, Campbell would only say that she would be back before weekend.
She asked that Stabroek Sport forward all other questions to her lawyer Joe Harmon whose services she has retained. When contacted Harmon explained that he was retained by Campbell's parents to represent her and is trying to resolve the issue in an amicable way.
"I have asked the GFL get a proper account of the finance that is missing. I want to know what she has to answer for," Harmon said.
The lawyer said that up to yesterday the GFL could not give an exact figure of how much money is missing but that he expects the information by today.
"Christopher Matthias had suggested that it is somewhere in the vicinity of $500,000," Harmon said. He pointed out that since Campbell is the treasurer she would be responsible for GFL funds.
"She is responsible for the custody of GFL's funds and she must account for monies entrusted to her," the lawyer added. "We are trying to resolve it in an amicable way." Campbell left Guyana for Barbados last Monday.
She has claimed that the GFL is attempting to use her as a scape goat and vowed to return to "clear" her name.
However, GFL patron Odinga Lumumba reasoned that Campbell has failed to fulfil her responsibility to the organisation she was elected to serve since she left the country without informing members of the executive and handing over important documents.
"From the preliminary information that I have received it appears that the treasurer, at a minimum, has not fulfilled her responsibility of reporting funds that have been collected," Lumumba said.
"She is the treasurer of the organisation and a responsible party and has left without reporting to the GFL and without placing the funds in the trust of the executives. Therefore, I can only assume that there is some measure of guilt. The onus is now or her to prove that she is not guilty," Lumumba stated.
Whether it's a criminal issue or not is another question," he added.
The patron called on the GFL to take heed of what has taken place in an effort to stem any chance of recurrence.
"The GFL should learn from the recent developments so that there would not be a repeat. "We need to stop trying to get volunteers all the time. Maybe in some areas we need to pay people to do certain types of work."
Meanwhile, the police is yet to start investigation into the matter Police Public Relations officer, Assistant Superintendent (ASP) David Ramnarine said yesterday.
"If the GFL [Georgetown Football League] needs the assistance of the Guyana Police Force, then the appropriate procedure is to lodge an official complaint at the CID Headquarters at Eve Leary or Brickdam," Ramnarine said.
He maintained that investigations have not commenced as the proper foundation has not yet been laid.