Venues will open: CEO

By ISAAC LIRI
MAJOR sporting venues such as the Taurama Aquatic Centre and the Rita Flynn Sports Complex will be up re-open this week says PNG Sports Foundation chief executive Peter Tsiamalili Junior, pictured.
Tsiamalili Jr said leading into Christmas last year they downscaled their activities and did not open our after Christmas and the New Year due to staff breaking and at the same time the cash flows were affected as all accounts were closed resulting in the down scaling of activities.
He said the venues would be open to the public, athletes and sporting federations this week and the temporary closure had not caused any inconvenience with users of the venues having been notified .
“We are okay now. We have come up with an arrangement with PNG Power and Eda Ranu with an understanding,” Tsiamalili Jr said.
“We are all feeling the effects of low cash flow in the country and so we are trying to manage our facilities as best as we can. But we will re-open this week.”
Tsiamalili Jr was referring to the temporary closure of the venues as a minor setback as is a consequence of a similar experience faced the foundation in 2012 but was confident the venue managers had things under control.
“We are having to experience what we experienced in 2012 where the last few months had really put guys especially venue managers in a position where they are put in some strategies to counter the shortfall from the Government.
“Now we will still pursue to ask the government to ensure that they provide funding and that is something we have taken up in the higher level, the Prime Minister, the Chief Secretary, Finance and Planning are well aware of our position so we will keep pushing and I’m sure when the State is in a better position they’ll be able to facilitate our request.
“However having said that as a venue management team we must take the responsibility to go outside of the box to ensure that we continue to have the facility available for the public,” Tsiamalili Jr said.
He appealed to the public to understand that the foundation was not a profit orientated entity, and was about service.
“Whatever income they get is put back into operations,” he said.
Tsiamalili Jr said they would make usage fees affordable for the public in order to generate corporate  interest and promote the sports.
“We can’t have high fees. We have to make the venues accessible by the  public. We just have to manage the funding from the state as well as look at other stratergies.”