Rs50 million sports funds lapse

ISLAMABAD: As the dates of South Asian Games (December 1-10) draw closer, sports in the country got a jolt as over Rs50 million of government funds set forth for the players’ training and camps got lapsed.

A well-placed source in the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has told ‘The News’ that due to delayed decision to start the camp training for the Asian Games, over Rs50 million has got lapsed — the amount now cannot be used any further.

“Yes, a heavy amount of over Rs50 million, solely set forth for the players, athletes, training, camps, hiring national and international coaches, has got lapsed. Apparently it is a big loss to Pakistan athletes and their preparation for the South Asian Games to be held in less than six months time in Nepal,” the official said.

The main reason for this lapse is said to be the delayed decision on the part of the Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) to start camps for the SA Games and to release the annual grants for the sports federations.

The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) had virtually stopped even meager grants to the federations for almost a year. That not only resulted in delayed start of the camps but also unprecedented delay in release of government backing for the federations, athletes and support staff resulting in total stalemate in sports activities.

Besides the camps at domestic level, it is a must that athletes get off and on international exposure to learn the ever-changing international techniques by competing against the best around.

When ‘The News’ approached Arif Ibrahim, acting Director General PSB, he said it has always been difficult to manage things in short span of time especially when it came to financial matters.

“As you know there had been a delay in releasing grants and dispersing sports budget. In these months we have always been careful in spending finances more due to restructuring measures. It is better to make a careful move rather than spending money in haste. All these months we thoroughly reviewed our priorities as where the previous grants and amounts had been spent earlier. The delay also occurred due to federations’ forensic audit.”

All said and done, the ultimate sufferers have always been athletes. These athletes are required to put up their best show in international meets where they are exposed to those competitors who get state of art training facilities and also get opportunity to flex their muscles against the best during their training period.