Harare — THE Zimbabwe Olympic Committee have embarked on a national audit exercise to ascertain whether their affiliates are engaged in specific and real sport activities in the country and on the international scene.

The ZOC would also like to see whether their affiliates were organising and participating in competitions and implementing training programmes for their athletes.

This audit follows a resolution made during the last ZOC General Assembly on July 20 this year where they adopted the constitutional compliance framework drafted in terms of article 9 (d) of the ZOC constitution.

Article 9 (d) of the ZOC constitution states that the General Assembly shall comprise of Zimbabwean nationals of good standing who may be:

(a) Members of the ZOC executive board

(b) Honorary life members

(c) Any Zimbabwean who is a member of the International Olympic Committee

(d) Presidents of National Federations or their representatives affiliated to the International Federations recognised and included in the Programme of the Olympic and/or Commonwealth Games.

The national federations will also have to prove that they exist on a national level and that they exercise a specific and real sporting activity in the country and internationally, in particular by organising and participating in competitions and implementing training programmes for their athletes.

The ZOC shall recognise only one National Federation for each sport governed by such International Federations.

And after the adoption of the constitutional compliance framework drafted in terms of the article 9 (d) of the ZOC constitution, the body's executive board was subsequently tasked with the role of implementing the framework by carrying out a national sports associations audit to ascertain their status in compliance with this framework.

The ZOC secretariat under the leadership of chief executive Robert Mutsauki have already sent out questionnaires to the national sports associations in which they are requested to give details regarding their national status.

The national sports associations have been requested to, among other things, state their executive and provincial structures.

They also have to indicate whether they have any specific sport development programme.

The ZOC would also like to find out whether the president or chairman of the association is a Zimbabwean citizen.

The organisation enforced a law that bars presidents and representatives of national sports associations, who hold dual citizenship, from attending its meetings.

It was agreed at the July meeting to enforce the clause which states that presidents of affiliated national sports associations and their representatives to the ZOC general assembly must be citizens of Zimbabwe.

In the same questionnaire sent to the national sports associations, they were asked to indicate whether they have presented their audited accounts at their own annual meetings in the past four years.

The completed questionnaire that was sent to the national sports associations is to be submitted to ZOC on or before November 21.

The results and recommendations of this audit shall be tabled for consideration at the next ZOC general assembly in April 2009.

Thereafter, national sports associations' executives (president, secretarygeneral and treasurer) will be asked to meet with ZOC officials to justify their status.