Earlier this year, Minister Shaw Kgathi, through his ministry, continued the pledge to assist Botswana sporting bodies with funds to help support and develop sports in the country.
Kgathi handed a whooping P64 million cheque to the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC), stating that out of the said amount, P6.2 million is allocated to the Botswana National Olympic Committee (BNOC).
Besides the 6.7 percent increment compared to the money given last year, many sports codes are still crying about little funding from the government. They complain of unfair funding, stating that the bodies do not look at the amount of activities a code has before funding, hence the underfunding, attributing this to lack of performance by some associations. However, with about 34 sporting codes affiliated to the BNSC and all looking for the annual funding from the sport bodies, it may not be surprising to get these complaints.
Responding to these allegations, BNSC Marketing and Communications Manager, Modipe Chris Nkwe, explained that funds are allocated based on a number of reasons, such as a sport code’s activities and maturity.
“We give funding to all our affiliates annually but if a code exhausts its funds before the end of the year, they can plead for supplementary funding. The funds are allocated according to the codes activities, their level of performance and maturity. For instance, if a code has more activities planned for the year, their funding will surely be increased,” he said. He added that they also have a criterion on how a code gets to be allocated a certain amount.
“We also have a criterion determining which sport code is given a certain amount. We base our allocations on the codes budget submissions and past expenditure trends. BNSC is, however, working on a Funding Allocation Policy,” Nkwe added. He further said should a code misuse their annual funding, they get reprimanded, funding suspended, pending an investigation into the matter.
“All affiliates are expected to be accountable for their expenditure and from time to time through the BNSC Internal Auditor we liaise with the sporting codes to see how their allocated funds have been used.
For their part, BNOC Chief Executive Officer, Tuelo Serufho, explained that the BNOC has a total of 26 Members, of which19 are full Members and the rest are associate Members. He further explained that the BNOC doesn’t necessarily give money to Members for administrative purposes, in the fashion that the BNSC does.
“We normally make payment from our side for projects we are implementing with our Members. In short, the BNOC assists sports codes to prepare for and compete at major international multi-sport events such as the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games,” he said. “The greatest criterion is our strategy. E.g. for the Commonwealth Games that we are presently preparing for, we have set ourselves an ambitious target of a total eight medals. Athletics & Boxing have been identified as the key sports to assist us attain those. Consequently, they’d tend to get the lion’s share of funding in respect of these Games. Otherwise the soundness or viability of the proposals from the BNOC Members does influence our funding decisions,” he added.
Serufho went on to say funds are also allocated based on the strategic importance of Members’ initiatives.
Serufho asserted that to enhance accountability, the BNOC pays the bulk of suppliers directly for goods supplied and for services rendered. He also noted that should a member misuse the funds allocated to it in some way, due diligence and investigations will be undertaken and the Laws of Botswana as well as International Olympic Committee regulations will be applied.
