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| Team Cook Islands at the Games Village. The facility will be given to the University of Papua New Guinea |
By FIDELIS SUKINA
The Pacific games is a sure success for Papua New Guinea
topping the medal tally with a whopping 88 Gold 69 Silver and 60 Bronze, coming
in second was defending champions New Caledonia, and Tahiti in third place.
All success has been credited to the Athletes and of course
the High performance training center and the High Performance coaches.
The Go for gold program by the National Government produced
results with a backing of K4 million going to good use to train athletes
overseas and at the High Performance center here in the Nation’s capital.
Sports Minister Justin Tkatchenko has praised the High
Performance center and said the government will continue with the program to
achieve more results in the future.
“Thanks to the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill we have approval
and we will continue with the High Performance training and the High
Performance Institute, that’s very important and that will continue because
that has given us the 88 gold medals, it has allowed us to have the best
coaches from the best situations to ensure we give our athletes the best
performance training possible.”
Tkatchenko said
Team PNG athletes were also happy with the games and the
decision by government to give K2, 500 each to athletes who didn’t win any medals.
This is apart from the players who took gold medals who will
be getting K20,000 these include members of teams sports who will get the same amount
each, for silver medalists they will get K10, 000 while Bronze medalists will
get K5, 000.
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| During the closing ceremony of the 15th Pacific Games |
It’s an incentive which was made possible by the government through
secured K7 million funding which will ensure all athletes of team PNG are happy
and come out winners in their own right.
As for the sporting venues, they will all come under the
Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation
Minister for sports
and National Events Justin Tkatchenko during a press conference at Parliament
House said every facility that was built except the games village will come
under the management of the Sports Foundation under a Trust.
“The National Sports
Trust Limited is headed by the deputy chairman of the PNG sports Foundation
Godfrey Seeto and his Deputy Stan Joyce very prominent Papua New Guineans that
have done so much for our country especially in administration and management and
also construction, so they have a vast experience in that regard they will be
heading the new trust which comes under the PNG sports foundation under
chairman Graham Osborne” Tkatchenko said
He said things went out of hand after the 1991 pacific games
and it was a lesson to be learnt.
“ 1991after the pacific games everything collapsed fell apart, because of management and previous governments non
funding for the facilities this will not happen under my watch and this will
not happen under your governments watch, we will ensure that the facilities
will be funded and maintained for the long term” Tkatchenko added
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Venues like the new Aquatic center and others constructed for the games
will come under the PNG Sports foundation under the National Sports Trust Limited |
He said that venue managers in Papua New Guinea will be
helped by experts from Australia to help guide them and enhance their capacity.
“The Australian Government will only provide one or two
experts individual experts to oversee manage and run the venues for a period of
two to three years during that time they
will train and advise the managers of those infrastructure venues that we have
built they will be under the venues experts from Australia and will work side
by side to ensure everything is covered and the knowledge they lacks is
improved they get educated in that regard this will ensure they are educated to
the highest level so they can take on those facilities without fear or favor we
are not taking away this roles from Papua New Guineas but enhancing what they
already have” Tkatchenko said
As for the Games village it will be the property of the
University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) but will be out sourced to other
professionals to help manage it.
Justin Tkatchenko
said UPNG lacked the capacity to look after such a facility
“Let’s not kid ourselves on how we are going to run and
operate it, The university of Papua New Guinea has not got the capacity to look
after a 1500 room basically a hotel or a kitchen that can cater for a thousand
people an hour , the government cannot also look after such a facility, we need
the best people and companies, hoteliers get them involved and get them to help
us run this facility, so its maintained and looked after in the long term, it
needs to be outsourced to professionals to ensure it is run properly for the students
as well as for future sporting and major events in our country” Tkatchenko said
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Linda Pulsan training at the High Performance center a program
which the Government will continue with |
But back to the local competitions in Port Moresby well
after the sports starved capital of Port Moresby had a fill from the pacific
games most competitions in the city for sporting codes came to a standstill
with sports like Rugby Union having nowhere to play out the 2015 season till
this date.
Well the minister said it will be under sub lease basis that
sporting codes can use the facilities after the government acquired all the
land titles of all sporting venues and now have put them all under one title
under the PNG Sports foundation.
“We compulsory
acquired all the sporting facilities and recreational facilities in Port
Moresby for that it’s all under one title which comes under the PNG Sports
Foundation Sporting codes will now come to the Sports Foundation the CEO and
chairman and they will than put up their proposal to look after and use that
facility, that we have built for the pacific games” Tkatchenko said
“For example Rugby Union will come back to the sports
foundation and ask the sports foundation to take over the facility, there will
be terms and conditions put in place for them to use the land we will sub lease
it back to them” Tkatchenko said
But for these venues to be used proper maintenance must be
done and defects fixed before the Sports Foundation can take over the
facilities, that has been the plan all along and government has put in a 10%
withholding fee for the contractors to fix up the venues before they can be
paid their final installment.
Minister for sports and National Events Justin Tkatchenko
said all contractors contracted with the Pacific Games venues are subjected to
a withholding fee before they hand over the venues to the Sports Foundation
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| Team PNG womens 4x400 meter relay team before their Gold medal performance |
“All contracts for all infrastructure for all companies are
subjected to a 10% withholding fee to ensure work is completed, until all work
and defects of the construction is complete the 10% will not be paid to the contractor, this is
so all our facilities are completed over the next two to three months.”
Tkatchenko said
He added that minor works were being done on some venues and
defect lists were written for contractors to see and fix the problems
“There are minor works that need to be done at the Aquatic
Center and Bisini Parade, all the defect lists have been given to the
contractors by professional independent consultants and architects, as well
there is a defect list by PNG Sports Foundation these lists will go around with
the contractors and see all different venues defects are fixed before venues
can be handed back to the Sports Foundation” Tkatchenko said
He also added that contrators have an obligation to maintain
facilities for free in the next 12 months
“All contractors for this venues will maintain these
facilities free of charge on their own cost for 12 months, this is the first of
its kind, we want the facilities to come back to us with no maintenance issues
so the venues and the Trust can run them perfectly from day one, all payments
will be done after all defects are taken care of, we must hold the contractor
accountable for their workmanship” Tkatchenko said
Papua New Guinea is now ready for future sporting events;
with the ball rolling it’s only a kick away from reaching Papua New Guineas
goal of being the top sporting nation in the Pacific.
