Former FERWAFA presidential aspirant Augustin Munyandamutsa has strongly criticized the leadership of the incumbent president Vincent de Gaulle Nzamwita and labeled the whole football management system in Rwanda ‘rotten’.

Munyandamutsa says that the ‘dysfunctional system’ has deteriorated the standards of local football instead of taking it forward. Munyandamutsa, a member of FERWAFA, who is the president of Kicukiro-based second division side, SEC Academy, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with Sunday Sport and accused the FERWAFA administration of "working for their own interests rather than that of the Rwandan football fraternity.”

"I don’t hate Nzamwita but I am against the way he’s managing our football and his leadership. It is quite amazing that such an institution does not have a budget, an action plan,” he wondered.

He added, "How can such an administration function properly without an action plan and when I raise these concerns, am called a rebel and banned from actively engaging in the development process of our football.”

Munyandamutsa was recently handed a two-year ban from all football related activities and fined Rwf500,000 by the General Assembly for an offence related to incitement to hatred or violence. However, he denied the accusation insisting that they are "baseless and politically motivated” hence petitioned FIFA for intervention.

"Such resolutions are signs of failure and poor leadership by FERWAFA, this is a serious issue that requires the general public to stand up and search for a long lasting solution but if people fear to expose culprits, who will do it,” he noted.

Background FERWAFA’s weakness can be traced back in the 2015 financial statement report whose Financial Committee Ad hoc raised highly risky issues that required immediate attention. These included; Failure in the preparation of accounting, Lack of previous years’ financial statements, non-compliance of tax law, lack of mission report.

Others contain lack of title deed of FERWAFA building and land, weakness in Management of FERWAFA account receivables and payables, Failure in preparation of FERWAFA budget, weakness in fixed assets management and weakness in cash and bank management. To put this into perspective, according to the report, FERWAFA received a total income of Rwf1,738,021,958 but only Rwf65,237,546 was allocated to the development commission compared to Rwf237,385,366 that was allocated to administration and Rwf64,594,322 that was meant for the executive committee.

Nzamwita responds

When contacted, Nzamwita acknowledged that indeed FERWAFA has weaknesses, which he attributed to an ineffective system that he found in place and is working hard to improve.

He said, "We found an ineffective system in place where there was no specific budget because FERWAFA’s actions and sources of income are always dynamic so it very difficult to estimate a budget.” "Again, we never had an audit committee which had always caused difficulties in following our financial reports but we have now instituted one and we also formulated a budget this year and slowly by slowly we shall fix all,” he added.

Nzamwita was elected Rwanda Football Association (FERWAFA) boss in January 2014. The former APR FC secretary-general beat five other contenders, among them the then incumbent Celestin Ntagungira.

Nominated by second division side, Intare FC, Nzamwita garnered 19 votes out of 37 total votes cast, six more than Rayon Sports candidate Ntagungira, who collected 13 votes. Munyandamutsa got three votes, while for FERWAFA vice president Raoul Gisanura Ngenzi (Gasabo FC) and Unit FC’s Jean Mbanda relieved a paltry one vote each.