Sports council withdraws netball federation certificate in renewed bickering

The National Council of Sports (NCS) has withdrawn the Certificate of Recognition from the Uganda Netball Federation (UNF).

The NCS says that it will no longer conduct any business with the sport of netball on behalf of the government of Uganda.

In a statement released by the Council, and also seen by Charmar News, the decision arises out of the persistent governance and leadership challenges in the never federation.

The other challenge, NCS says, is the failure by the federation to follow the laws of Uganda and their own statutes.

The NCS says these governance issues and leadership challenges were brought to their attention, and that if the Ministry of Education and Sports, two and a half years ago for amicable resolution but all the official processes followed since that time have failed.

They hence in a meeting held on Wednesday 25th October 2023 resolved that, the Certificate of Recognition of the Federation (UNF) be terminated due to, “Failure to abide by the Constitutional provisions of Uganda Netball Federation (2012) for election of the Executive Committee and failure to follow the correct procedure to amend the Constitution of UNF contrary to clause 2 of the Certificate of Incorporation issued under the Trustees Incorporation Act. Cap 165,”

The statement further revealed also that failure to resolve the governance and leadership challenges within the Uganda Netball Federation, contrary to Section 15(1)(0), of the National Sports Act, 2023 and Failure to disclose sources of funding to National Council of Sports – contrary to Section 22 of the National Sports Act, 2023 and Regulation 16(2) of the National Council of Sports Statutory Instrument No. 38 of 2014 have led to withdraw of the certificate.

“Failure to inform National Council of Sports of the several bank accounts that the Uganda Netball Federation resolved to open without following procedures and their use of forged and unauthorized documents to open these accounts,” reads the statement in parts.

On this note, the national council has asked the federation to reapply for recognition once the issues that have led to the withdrawal of the certificate have been addressed.

It should be recalled that for the months leading to this year’s world Cup, the Uganda Netball Federation and the National Council of Sports have been embroiled in a corruption scandal that threatened the team’s participation in the World Cup.

While appearing on NBS Sport early this year, Sarah Babirye Kityo, the president of the federation, blew off the lid when she informed the public that NCS’s General Secretary Dr Patrick Ogwel asked her to account for Sh425m when he indeed had given her Sh186m.

Before the revelation on NBS Sport, Babirye had appeared before a parliamentary committee and broke down as she narrated her frustrating ordeal dealing with the council.

She informed the the committee that Dr Ogwel had continuously frustrated her federation’s activities by not complying with the set guidelines.

Amidst these counter-accusations, Dr Ogwel’s NCS, at a press conference held on 1st February 2023, made a move to illegitimatize Babirye’s netball federation executive administration. NCS said it only recognizes UNF’s executive that assumed office on 25th June 2021 after an elective assembly.