Morobe sports under-funded

By ELLEN TIAMU
SPORTS in Lae and the Morobe province should be given more funding according to a provincial sports administrator.
John Peka, a former PNG soccer great and now administrator, said Morobeans had excelled in many sports  over many years and the potential was there for more to break out on the national scene.
However, he said, funding at the provincial and local government levels had been the problem in the past years.
“A total of K10 million is allocated to each of the nine local government (LLG) areas under the District Services Improvement Programme (DSIP) funding each year and sports falls under the community development category but gets very little,” he said.
“Each time we request money to try to develop sports in the province, the answer is always, ‘there is no money’.”  
Peka was confident that the new Morobe MPs including Governor Kelly Naru and those re-elected would work together to further sports in their electorates, districts and the province.
“If each LLG allocated K1 million towards sports development, sports in Morobe will take off in a big way,” he said.
Peka said sports helped keep youth off the streets and reduced law and order problems in communities.
He is urging all nine Morobe MPs and Governor, Kelly Naru to put aside politics and party affiliations when considering the betterment of sports in Morobe.