Sports council vows to boost fund-raising

Sports council vows to boost fund-raising

JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI) started the
new year with a vow to intensify both its fund raising efforts
and its public accountability report transparency.

With local, regional and international multisport events
coming up -- the National Games (PON), the Olympic Games and the
2001 Southeast Asian Games -- KONI chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar
said that he would try to encourage the government, and the
general public as well, to invest their money in sports
development.

"We have to be able to appraise our strengths and weaknesses,
eradicate the weaknesses and organize our sports potential.
Although we were up against it last year, we were still able to
maintain our superiority.

"We want the government to pay more attention and be more
committed to sports development. I don't mean to beg for money
like a small kid, but I want everyone to realize that sports are
essential to the nation's life ," Wismoyo said at a media
briefing on Tuesday.

He said KONI was still weighing three proposals on fund
raising program.

KONI's audit chief I Putu Gede Ary Suta, who was also present
at the briefing, said KONI had appointed accounting firm Richard
Tanubrata & Co. to audit the council's accounts. He also said the
council had asked another accounting firm, Prasetio, Utomo & Co.,
to design a new financial system.

"We want to increase people's participation in sports
development, but at the same time we should have good public
accountability reports," Ary, who is also a staff member at the
Ministry of Finance, said.

He said that the report would have a different format because
KONI is a nonprofit organization. "KONI is nonprofit. It has no
working capital but donations instead. It's also a
semigovernmental organization."

Ary suggested KONI hold a special seminar on fund raising to
end the disputes surrounding sports funding.

"There's always controversy when KONI starts to raise funds.
Let's try to design a concept of fund raising. Everybody is
talking about raising funds for sports development, yet KONI is
still finding it difficult to get the money."

During the media briefing, the first of the year, Wismoyo
mentioned some of the problems facing national sports
development.

He acknowledged the government's lack of support for sports,
adding that some Asian countries earmark a considerable amount of
their budgets on sports development.

"Vietnam is a poor country but its government pays a lot of
attention to sports. The Malaysian government spent US$28 million
on training for the 1999 Southeast Asian Games, while the Chinese
Taipei government, as stated in their 1994 report, allocated Rp
400 billion for sports," he said. (ivy)