‘Nothing Official From CAF Yet’ …As Liberia’s Missing US$200,000 Still In Limbo

Few months ago, the Liberia Football Association (LFA) president emeritus, Musa Hassan Bility, stated in a social media post that the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has concluded investigation into the missing US$200, 000 earlier intended for Liberia.

According to Bility, following an Excom meeting at CAF, the continental football parent body vindicated the former FA leadership headed Musa Bility of maliciously diverting US$200,000 intended to support grassroots football development, to a polish based company. Bility indicated that a CAF internal investigation uncovered that the transfer of the US$200,000 was due to an in-house mishaps in CAF’s financial procedure thus prompting public allegation that amounted to the character assassination of the former leadership.

Prior to Bility’s assertions, it was earlier gathered from a CAF source that the continental football hierarchy has taken responsibility for the unauthorized diversion of Liberia’s US$200,000, and that the money would have been sent back to the Liberian FA within a period of three weeks.

The news of a possible return of the US$200,000 came as a hope as considering how elements of the current LFA leadership had gone the extra mile by engaging cyber technicians amongst other things to establish what actually went wrong with the transfer of the money.

However, and despite the dissemination of such privileged information from Bility, the local football house has confirmed that it is yet to receive an official communication from CAF on the climax of the diverted US$200,000 investigation.

Speaking to The INQUIRER Newspaper exclusively, President Raji clarified that CAF has not responded officially about any ongoing investigation into the diverted US$200,000 purposely considering that the money was allotted by CAF for Liberia’s grassroots football development program.

The missing US$200,000 was first reported by the new administration at its first press conference held at the LFA’s office in Monrovia. Addressing the conference, LFA President, Mustapha Raji, amongst other things informed the Liberian populace a CAF allotted US$200,000 intended for the FA was criminally transferred to the account of a polish based organization.

President Raji further disclosed that the transaction was later discovered by his administration after the reviewing of documentation made available to him. Though it was not announced by the Bility’s regime, the news of the missing money later took over the media landscape in Liberia as both political and sports radio talk-shows highlighted the conspiracy that robbed Liberia of such huge football investment.

While investigating the missing US$200,000, CAF informed the Raji’s leadership that the transaction was conducted with the acquiescence of the former regime. CAF insisted that its financial office took direct instruction from the finance department of the LFA, to transfer the money to the Polish account.

At least US$100,000 was transferred to the very polish based account twice between 2016 and 2017 respectively. The former leadership of the FA has repeatedly denied accusation that it authorized the transfer of money intended for Liberia to the account of a polish-based organization.

However, the status of the ongoing US$200,000 investigation is still uncertain as CAF is currently undergoing serious in-house auditing. CAF President, Ahmad Ahmad has been repeatedly accused of presiding over a criminally invested football hub.

Ahmad first came under attacked by the CAF’s former Excom member, Musa Bility, who openly questioned his innocence over Liberia’s missing US$200,000. Mr. Bility accused the CAF boss of shielding elements within CAF from being investigated in connection with the transfer of the money to a Polish account.

The tough-talking former presidential aspirant for the FIFA’s presidency also called to check the silence of other CAF Excom members over what he termed as the unprofessional and unacceptable state of financial dealings under the eyes of Ahmad.

Meanwhile, Liberia Football Association (LFA) president, Mustapha Raji has assured that the FA will continue to engage CAF to ensure that Liberia retrieves its diverted US$200,000.  Writes D. Webster Cassell