Gonjuan handed ban, K170,000 fine by Fifa

Sports

FIFA, football’s international governing body, on Friday banned an ally of former vice-president and Papua New Guinea Football Association (PNGFA) president David Chung for financial wrongdoing linked to Papua New Guinea hosting the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in 2016.
John Wesley Gonjuan, pictured, was banned for two years, eight months and fined 50,000 Swiss francs (K170,000).
He was investigated after an audit “revealed a conflict of interest with a company owned by Gonjuan and the receipt of an unjustified amount” linked to the tournament, a Washington Post report said.
The amount of money was not specified. The Fifa executive committee, including Chung and Sepp Blatter, awarded the women’s tournament to PNG in March 2015.
Fifa said Gonjuan was charged with conflict of interest and accepting gifts — the same charges which last year removed Chung from his Fifa role and as Oceania Football Confederation president.
Chung, who led Oceania from 2010-18, was banned by Fifa for six-and-a-half years for financial wrongdoing linked to a NZ$20 million (K42.77 million) project to build its new headquarters in New Zealand.
After Chung left his positions last, Gonjuan stepped up as interim president of PNGFA.
Meanwhile, Gonjuan says he has acknowledged the decision.
“In my opinion, we (PNG) did our very best to rise up to the occasion and delivered the world-class event despite the limited resources we had and the limited time given to us,” he said in statement yesterday.
“I have discussed the matter with my lawyers to review their decision and will decide the next action in due course.”
Gonjuan said PNG had only eight months to deliver the tournament.
“The decision to bid to host the event was done in 2015 and I wasn’t involved.
“But I was brought in to help with the process in November 2015.
“After a number of strategic and planning meetings between Fifa, PNGFA and PNG Sports Foundation (representing the interest of the government of the day), a decision was made in April 2016 for PNG to host the Fifa U20 WWC (Women’s World Cup) in November 2016.
“It was a mammoth task, given the short time.
“We, at PNGFA, LOC (local organising committee) and PNGSF, worked tirelessly to deliver the event.
“To be honest, there were lot of cut and paste, and readjustment that we had to do to deliver the event.”
Gonjuan said he was engaged as the competitions and team services manager.
“My role among others was involved in overseeing the construction and development of the two mini stadiums (now called the Bava Park and PNG Football Stadium respectively), eight additional training fields — apart from the five training fields that we already had in Port Moresby,” Gonjuan said.
“Furthermore, I had the oversight and visibility over the team service department, medical department and the operation at the four stadiums and twelve training venues.
“The procurement and financial delegation, including approval, were responsibilities of the LOC CEO (chief executive) , his deputy and the finance team. I had none of those powers. We engaged casuals to join the LOC and competition department.
“Seventy-plus casuals were engaged. Nearly 90 per cent of them had no bank account and or never had any formal employment prior to their engagement with the LOC.
“Fifa had a no-cash policy, therefore it was difficult for LOC to pay those volunteers. With that in mind, the LOC CEO approached me to engage my company to manage the compensation or allowances for those volunteers.
“It was a normal business transaction whereby time sheets were kept as record of attendance for the casuals and invoice was raised at the end of the pay period ending. Each casuals had to sign off when collection their allowances.
“The former LOC CEO has confirmed this in his letter to the Fifa Ethics Committee dated Aug 1, 2019.”

2 comments

  • No wonder they (Gonjuan&Chung) kept on holding the position as if it was their birth right…now we know there was something terrible to hide.

  • Because of such greed, we lost out of the Olympic qualifiers in 2015 and other international sporting events.
    The parting of PNGFA and FFPNG, Kapinato saw what was happening and that is why broke away.
    All our athletes struggles and our high hopes wasted for the two couples.

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