By HENRY MORABANG
THE newly established PNG Sports Foundation may not realise its objective of making Papua New Guinea the number one sporting nation in the region following a massive K1.3 million cut to its funding in the 2008 National Budget tabled in Parliament yesterday.
The Foundation has only been allocated K2.75 million compared with K4.075 million which its predecessor PNG Sports Commission received in the 2007 Budget.
A separate allocation of K300,000 has been set aside for PNG’s participation at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
The overall PNG Sports Foundation allocation is for administration and to facilitate and coordinate sports at national and international levels and training of physical education teachers at National Sports Institute in Goroka.
Also under the funding, PNG Sports Foundation is required to conduct courses on coaching, refereeing and sports administration and conduct programme in schools in conjunction with the Education Department and sponsors.
The PNG Sports Federation and the National Olympic Committee secretary-general Sir John Dawanincura said yesterday he was pleased with their K300,000 allocation for the Beijing Games next year.
Sir John said that the PNG Sports Federation had submitted their budget through PNG Sports Foundation for K450,000 but the allocation of K300,000 was sufficient to take the team to China next year.
“I want to express my gratitude to Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and MRDC board for supporting sports and hope the government would continue to support PNGSF for the next ten years,” he said.
With the massive funding cut from the State, the PNG Sports Foundation will rely more on corporate sponsors and business houses to implement its sports development programmes.
PNG Sports Foundation chairman Graham Osborne could not be reached for comments last night however, the acting executive director John Kambuou said they would study the Budget papers first before commenting.
However, the PNG Sports Foundation have not lost out altogether as Minister for National Planning and District Development Paul Tiensten has allocated K700,000 to the Government’s sports projects for 2008.
Commenting on that, Kambuou said he was expecting the amount and was pleased with what the government has allocated under Public Investment Program (PIP).