Weakening rupiah hits Olympic training

JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council (KONI) must seek an extra Rp 124 million (US$14,500) for its budget to finance the training preparation of the 2000 Olympic Games, deputy official in charge of planning and budget, Sudharno, said Friday.

"The deficit was caused by the weakening of rupiah against the US dollar, which makes a big difference in our calculations. I earlier set the rupiah value at Rp 7,500 to the greenback. Who knew that the rupiah would sink to Rp 8000 level against the dollar," he said.

"Anyway it's not a big deal. We will try to cover the deficit by reducing the budget for other items, which are not too important."

Sudharno said that currently KONI had spent Rp 2,003,570,853 out of Rp 2,006,855,600 budget from the government to finance the training of 74 athletes.

He also said Rp 1,960,413,681 of the amount was disbursed to the 11 sports organizations whose athletes have been groomed for the Olympic Games in Sydney.

"The government disbursed the funds in installment. We are expecting to receive the second installment by mid-June," he said.

"But if the disbursement is late, we will cover our spending from the funds given by the Gelora Senayan Management Board (BPGS)," he said.

KONI needs a total of Rp 6.9 billion for the Olympic training preparation. To date, it has received contributions from the government (Rp 4.2 billion), BPGS (Rp 2 billion), McDonald's fast-food firm (Rp 1 billion) and PT Samsung Electronics Indonesia ($70,000 in cash and another $30,000 in electronic goods).

The council also used Rp 500 million surplus from last year's Southeast Asian (SEA) Games budget. (ivy)