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Reported today on The Seattle Times

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Financial irregularities in African soccer exposed by audit

The scale of financial wrongdoing across African football has been unearthed in a confidential audit of the continent's governing body that raises concerns about the legitimacy of millions of dollars of payments to executives and national associations.

The Associated Press on Saturday obtained a copy of the private forensic review of the Confederation of African Football that was undertaken by financial services firm PwC last year when FIFA was effectively running the troubled body.

The auditors had to grapple with limited documentation to account for payments at CAF worth millions of dollars that raised doubts about the nature of contracts, the need for family members of executives to receive payments, and raised the prospect of kickbacks and tax evasion attempts.

The report, which is more than 50 pages long, covers the period 2015-19 and the presidencies of Issa Hayatou and successor Ahmad, who remains in power despite an ongoing ethics investigation that predates this audit.

The lack of documents related to financial transactions before 2015 has already been highlighted as an area needing further investigation, according to separate recommendations from a joint FIFA-CAF taskforce in another document obtained by the AP. The group, which includes political and legal figures from across Africa, has urged due diligence checks on payments from FIFA and CAF to the 54 member associations on the continent.

FIFA remitted $51 million to an Egyptian-based bank account from 2015 to 2018 as part of its "Forward Programme," according to the audit seen by the AP. By Dec. 18, 2018, $24 million had been disbursed across the continent and $10 million of this - amounting to 40 payments - was reviewed and invest