BABA calls on PNGABU to settle debts

UNSETTLED bills totalling K33,739 from the last National Boxing Championships in 2008 hosted by the Bougainville Amateur Boxing Association (BABA) have yet to be paid.
According to chairman of the local organising committee Pius Tate, who is an accountant by profession, the bills are mostly for accommodation expenses incurred by the association which he said were supposed to be paid from sponsorship monies given to the code’s governing body, the PNG Amateur Boxing Union.
“The Bougainville amateur boxing union is being pressured by creditors from the 2008 national championships to pay what it owes or we may be sued,” a frustrated Tate said yesterday.
“It’s been almost two years now since the championships and still the PNGABU, led by Lohial Nuau and John Avira, has been passing the buck.”
The 2008 Telikom National Boxing Championships, which was originally scheduled for Wakunai in October, was moved to Buka with the union giving assurances it would assist the organising committee with running costs.
Tate said PNGABU had recieved sponsorship of K30,000 from Telikom and a further K5,000 from the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) prior to the championships but the local organising committee had not been given any of that funding to run the event.
In total, the championships blew its original budget of K40,000 and ended up costing the host association K67,365.29.
Tate said although the PNGABU had initially given his committee K10,000, BABA had raised K23,046 from its own fundraising efforts and from local sponsors.
In his report, Tate stated that K34,319.29 had been settled, however, the remainder of the costs had yet to be paid. Creditors, mostly guest houses in and around Buka, have not been paid for housing teams from other provinces. Veteran amateur boxing technical officer Simon Tovarika called on the PNGABU to settle the debt because.