Investigation into GFL's missing funds stagnant -Colin Klass
By Steve Ninvalle
Stabroek News
May 6, 2003
The investigation into the alleged misappropriation of approximately half a million dollars from the Georgetown Football League has remained stagnant and an end is no where in sight president of the Guyana Football Federation Colin Klass has declared.
The nine-month old investigation by the police has yielded little prompting Klass to express dissatisfaction with its snail's pace movement.
"Disappointingly we have not progressed from the point where we where last year and unfortunately the police have not given us any tangible information," Klass complained last week.
"Up to recently when we checked with the police they seem not to have moved from the point they were when the investigation started. It is disappointing since all of us would like to see a conclusion to that matter which could remove the dark cloud that hovers over the GFL," Klass added.
About $500,000 was discovered missing from the GFL's coffers in August of last year on the eve of treasurer Daune Campbell's departure for Barbados.
Christopher Matthias, then president of the GFL had told Stabroek Sport that a day before her departure Campbell was unable to locate cheque books and payment vouchers.
"The police were called in since we found out that monies that were supposed to be deposited were not," Matthias disclosed last August.
But when contacted in Barbados Campbell denied embezzelling any of the league's funds. She claimed that the GFL hierarchy was trying to use her as a scape goat and warned that she will return to clear her name.
"I have nothing to fear. Everything that I did regarding the use of money from the league I made sure that the Secretary Raol Johnson and the treasurer knew," Campbell said.
She retained the service of Attorney-at-Law Joseph Harmon who promised a "full and frank" release to the media. But that was nine months ago.
Since announcement of the fraud, which many football observers likened to the opening of a Pandora's box, the General Council, through a vote of no confidence, sacked the much touted `Millennium Executive' and replaced it with an Interim Management Committee.
Matthias later wrote to the GFF objecting to the removal of his executive on the grounds that the eviction did not follow the constitutional requirements of the GFL.
In September Matthius plunged the GFL into further chaos when he resigned citing jealousy, envy, deceit, treachery, and back-biting at every level as reasons which forced his sudden and ignominious exit from the throne of the second most powerful football body in Guyana.
"We have handed over all the necessary documentation and information to the police. We have complied with all the requirements. The police were trying to identify and pursue the persons implicated," Klass said.
Reports reaching Stabroek Sport recently state that Campbell is now pointing fingers at other members of the `Millennium Executive' alleging that they know more about the disappearance of the funds.
Since the discovery of the missing funds football in Georgetown has almost come to a halt.
