The Zambia Volleyball Association (ZAVA) has struggled to clarify whether or not the association abused funds donated by the Norwegian government.

On Monday the Norwegian government stated that it had suspended funding to the association after a forensic audit of ZAVA revealed incidences of gross mismanagement, corruption and other fraudulent activities.

The Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF) a subsidiary of the Norwegian Agency for Development further reported ZAVA to the police asking the law enforcers to penalise the culprits.

However, a statement from the association concurred with the forensic audit that there was abuse of funds by the association but that majority of the report was incorrect.

“Colleagues, as you are currently aware NIF is one of our partners and we have worked closely with them in a number of areas in sport development as ZAVA, among them are Governance, Advocacy etc. In reference to the Newspaper Article date 04.12.2019 from the Diggers Newspaper we would like to advise that a lot of details from the article are not correct. As an Association we had issues with our former Vice President Mr Kwasi Masole who fraudulently obtained money from the ZAVA account, disciplinary procedure was followed and appropriate action was taken against him in line with our internal Disciplinary process,” read a statement.

The association further acknowledged that they were instructed by NIF to report themselves to the police so that thorough investigations could be conducted.

“This matter was presented to our Affiliates at the AGM in March this year, NIF insisted that we needed to report the matter to the Police failure to which the entire board would be reported. The Forensic Audit report was issued by NIFs Auditors and we are currently working on closing some of the findings and NIF auditors are willing to make an addendum to the report on the updates that will be availed to them. We remain committed to the Sport of Volleyball as a Board and would like to request for your position support on this issue.”