5 March, 2008 - While the rest of the world is actively engaged in the final stages of their preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, an accountant of the Bhutan Olympic Committee in Thimphu is in the process of returning to the government around Nu 5.4 million of unused Olympic funds.
“These funds were supposed to be allotted for training our athletes in various federations to help prepare for the Olympics,” admitted a frustrated Yonten Tharchen, joint secretary of BOC since 2005. “But it’s being returned because BOC has simply failed to meet even once to decide on a Olympic strategy ever since the Beijing games were announced.”
This in the face of federations and athletes clamouring for more funds to help them prepare for events like the Olympics, so that at least they stand a chance of qualifying.
According to the BOC constitution, the committee is supposed to meet twice a year to take important sporting decisions. But in the past two years, only one meeting was held.
“For events like the Olympics, meetings are supposed to be held two years in advance, where all 14 federations meet to select teams and then give the budget and training support, which never happened,” said a BOC official.
Bhutan did participate in the qualifying rounds for Archery and Taekwondo but, on the initiative of the respective federations instead of any real BOC guidance. Bhutan failed to qualify.
Bhutan’s participation in the Beijing Olympics hinges on a wild card lottery invitation in archery, as has been the case in the past, so that our two lone archers can participate.
It’s a similar story with the South Asian Federation games to be held in Dacca later this year, with another Nu 1.6 million of prepatory and participatory funds, so far unused, also being returned.
The problem in recent times has been accentuated with BOC not having a general secretary, who resigned last year in October to join politics. Similarly presidents of various federations like Athletics, Taekwondo, Table Tennis and Cricket resigned last year to join politics. Even then, these presidents have only had largely ceremonial roles, with the real job being done by the BOC general secretary.
The committee is also still unsure whether it is an NGO or an autonomous body, with no clear government signals since 2002.
“We’ve had a tough time after our general secretary left to join politics but, then again, the various federations have taken no real initiative to ask or call for a meeting,” said the president of BOC, Lyonpo Kinzang Dorji. “In fact, most of them have overused their funds, with no visible results, and so we’re careful about any fund allocation.”
Lyonpo Kinzang Dorji said that, in order to solve the longstanding problems of BOC since its formation, a comprehensive rehaul plan of BOC was in the pipeline.
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