The leadership tussle within the now-suspended Samoa Triathlon Federation (S.T.F.) – which had also got the country’s sports governing body roped in – will likely have a long-term impact on Samoa’s sports scene.

And we say this for good and bad reasons, having published two stories connected to the issue recently in the Sunday Samoan and yesterday’s edition of the Samoa Observer. 

In the article (Suspension of S.T.F. jeopardises Games’ preparations) last Sunday, this newspaper reported on the broader implications of the decision by the Samoa Association of Sports and National Olympic Committee (SASNOC) to suspend the federation. The sports governing body in Samoa said the deregistration of the S.T.F. by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Labour (MCIL) was in breach of Article 4(b) of the SASNOC Constitution which left it no choice but to act.

The S.T.F. Team Manager Lani Young, a vocal critic of the old executive led by Seti Afoa and a current member of the new executive led by Arthur Mulitalo, said it was business as usual for their athletes and training events. But the federation’s fundraising activities planned for this year could be impacted, according to Mrs. Young.

"We don't have an official bank account for triathlon. This makes fundraising challenging as we want to be financially accountable in all our activities moving forward,” Mrs. Young said.

In yesterday’s edition, this newspaper reported on the concerns expressed by the Volleyball Samoa Federation Inc. (V.S.F.I.) at the publicising of their financial reports from previous years on social media. 

The S.T.F. Team Manager published the financial reports of the other sporting codes such as volleyball – in a bid to show that a member of the current S.A.S.N.O.C. executive had a conflict of interest – and should have recused himself from participating in any decisions relating to the suspension of the S.T.F.

However, the V.S.F.I. is of the view that Mrs. Young shouldn’t involve other sporting codes with the leadership tussle that currently exists at the S.T.F. In a post on the volleyball body’s Facebook page, its federation said the publicising of its financial reports had already caused “internal conflict” among its membership.

"The question is, if there are issues between Triathlon, why would you involve V.S.F.I. in it without even contacting us first then we would discuss the matter?”

We note the questions asked by the V.S.F.I. but the bigger question that should be raised is whether volleyball’s governing body in Samoa has in place transparency protocols to ensure their annual audit reports are regularly released for scrutiny by their membership. The reference by the V.S.F.I. to an internal conflict within their federation points to its membership asking questions about the audit reports.

Why is there an internal conflict within the membership of the V.S.F.I. and is it because their members are now seeing the audit reports for the first time? 

The federation has asked its members to direct all enquiries to the management if they have any other questions about finances from the previous years. Now isn’t that a good thing that the  V.S.F.I. members and even the public can ask questions about the federation’s annual audit reports?

In fact, connected to the above point and looking back to the initial concerns raised in June this year by Mrs. Young and the new executive led by Mr. Mulitalo, they’ve requested the former executive of the federation led by Mr. Afoa to give them copies of the audited accounts for the periods 2015–2022. What is wrong with that request for a federation that should have been on top of its fiduciary duties in line with the requirements of the MCIL?

It is mindboggling how the SASNOC chose to act quickly against the S.T.F. when most of its paid members invoked provisions of their federation’s constitution to remove the old executive through a 46–1 vote at a special general meeting in June this year with the lack of answers over the absence of audit reports one of the key reasons behind the removal of the old executive.

If we are to take the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Basic Universal Principles of Good Governance within the Olympic Movement as a guide, specifically Principle 2 on Institutional governance, we believe SASNOC is in breach of the IOC Charter in the way it has handled the S.T.F. leadership spill.

We make particular mention of Subsection 2.4 on Accountability and transparency under Principle 2 on Institutional governance. Under the above subsection, you will find the following subtext: “In order to enhance transparency, sports organisations shall have a regularly updated website that includes the following elements (list not exhaustive): Annual audited financial statements.”

There were SASNOC representatives at the special general meeting in June this year, where the vote of no confidence was moved against Mr. Afoa and his executive, and they were privy to the concerns of the membership of the absence of audit reports. Surely, they were aware of the IOC Charter on Good Governance and its mandatory requirements for annual audited financial statements. 

Something is not right in the way the SASNOC has handled the S.T.F. governance crisis and Samoa’s Minister for Sport needs to intervene to fix up this mess in order to restore the integrity of the country’s sports governing body.