Special week for rugby league

Greetings to all our rugby league family and welcome to our eighth edition of Fulltime Reserve, a weekly column to discuss all matters rugby league in our favourite newspaper The National.
This week is a special for rugby league in the country as all our Papua New Guinea Rugby Football League (PNGRFL) affiliates come together tomorrow for our annual general meeting (AGM) at Bluff Inn Resort outside Port Moresby.
Generally, the AGM addresses two matters:

• The PNGRFL board and management provides to all our stakeholders the annual report outlining the business of the organisation for the preceeding year; and,
• Provides the forum for PNGRFL’s official business such as the election of office bearers and adoption and amendments to our constitution.

This year’s AGM will be the seventh since the new board and reforms to the PNGRFL were introduced and incorporated. Although the PNGRFL was incorporated in 1974, we have no records of any AGM, annual report or audited financial reports for any period between then and 2013.
The first AGM on record was the one in 2014 which was held in Wabag, Enga, where it adopted the reformed constitution and where the first audited financials for the PNGRFL were presented.
Since then, PNGRFL has had six AGMs where six annual reports and as many unqualified audited financial reports hav been presented.
PNGRFL has had the privilege of reputable partners in building the brand and credibility of the sport with internationally reputable firms such as Ernest & Young which has been the PNGRFL’s auditors for the last four years.
In the six-year period from 2013 to 2019, the PNGRFL has grown from a organisation with no asset and no balance sheet with an annual budget of around K350,000 to an organisation with a turnover of a little over K18 million a year across all its six-tier programmes with properties and assets worth over K6 million.
All these on the back of the support of great corporate partners and supportive stakeholders who have together built PNGRFL into a proud sporting organisation with credibility and integrity whereby we have adopted international best practices from governance to management.
Tomorrow’s AGM will see another successful year in 2019 with the presentation of the annual report and unqualified audited financials.
PNGRFL will also be asked to vote on some major governance reforms through amendments to the constitution to further strengthen some of the gains the sport has made.
The AGM will also see the election of the PNGRFL board. Whatever the outcome, we can all be proud that the sport we all love is in a better place now than it has been in the last 47 years.
Join us this week for the “Half-Time” show on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages at 5.30pm today as we speak to PNG LNG Kumuls No.294 Alex Johnston in Australia.
We can be contacted on [email protected] for feedback on issues covered in this column or ask questions on issues that you would like us to discuss. Until next week, may the grace, love and care of our Good Lord be with you.

Cheers,
Sandis