K4 million more

THE PNG Sports Foundation will enjoy a 62% increase in funding next year after the government allocated K10.57 million in its national budget released yesterday.
This is an increase of K4 million from the 2010 allocation of K6.57 million.
Most of the funding will be taken up as recurrent expenditure for the foundation’s operations and the running of existing programmes.
According to expenditure estimates for next year contained in the document, only K408,600 or 3.9% of the total will be used for “sports and recreational services” and “sports coordination and development”. 
With the 2009 figure at just K3.873 million Sports Minister Philemon Embel said yesterday the increase over the last two budgets would only benefit the development of athletes in the long run.
“This (budget) increase is for the development of our athletes  and improving the Sports Foundation so it can continue to progress as an organisation to support programmes targeted to the majority,” Embel said.
He added that it was the foundation whose job it was to oversee the development of sports in the country.
“The development part of sports rests with the foundation.
“The funding will give the foundation the ability to manage all facets  and levels of sports in the country like the PNG Games concept, participation in regional games like Arafura and the Pacific Games and all the way to the Olympic Games.”
Embel said the increase in terms of actual new development funds was marginal but insisted the funding hike was significant.
His thoughts were also shared by  the foundations’s facilities committee chairman Graham Osborne, who was also pleased with the allocation.
“We’ve already made a lot of improvements since taking up our positions and the Sports Foundation is in better shape.
“There has been a revamping of the foundation over the last year and under the foundation’s chief executive officer Iamo Launa we can deliver the sports programmes the government has tasked us to do,” Osborne said.
He said for a long time the foundation was a “non-event” hamstrung with funding shortages and other inadequacies and was grateful for the government’s commitment.
“We are exactly where we should be at this point in terms of progress and  hopefully, we will carry on the good work.”