PSC chief sees NSA clean-up by yearend

MANILA, Philippines - PSC chairman Richie Garcia said the other day he expects delinquent NSAs to put their house in order before the end of the year or else they’ll be stripped of recognition by the POC and not receive funding for projects or athletes.

Garcia said the Commission on Audit (COA) recently issued a circular putting the POC on notice through the PSC that several NSAs are not eligible to accept government assistance because of unliquidated accounts or lack of proper documentation. He said COA dug deeply into the PSC’s disbursements since 1990 and discovered unliquidated balances of over P200 Million.

 “The COA, in the course of its audit, pointed out that several NSAs were not properly registered or documented and therefore, had no personality to receive financial subsidies,” said Garcia. “Before an NSA is certified to accept financial assistance from the PSC, it must be confirmed and recognized by the POC. If an NSA is not recognized by the POC, then it cannot receive funding from the PSC. At the same time, an NSA with an unliquidated balance cannot also receive further assistance until the books are cleaned up. We will definitely not fund any NSA with an unliquidated balance.”

Garcia said more than 30 NSAs were found with unliquidated accounts. “Little by little, the NSAs have been working on liquidating their balances so that from P100 Million when I started my term, the amount is now down to P18 to P20 Million so there is progress,” he said. Garcia said the key is accountability. An NSA is accountable to liquidate whatever amount it receives from the PSC as assistance.

Garcia estimated that 16 to 18 NSAs are still not registered with the SEC. Without the proper documentation, an NSA will lose recognition from the POC and eligibility to receive funding from the PSC. Garcia added that five to six NSAs are on notice to hold elections sanctioned by the POC.

“There are cases where an NSA held an election without POC observers or clearance,” he said. “We also know of cases where NSAs have not held an election for several years. The POC is putting its foot down because our NSAs must follow the stipulations of the Constitution and By-Laws as prescribed by their International Federations, IOC and the POC itself. Before holding an election, an NSA must submit a qualified list of voters constituting the legitimate stakeholders of the sport. For an election to be legitimate, I would imagine there must be representation from the UAAP, NCAA and clubs where the sport is played actively. NSAs with pending elections include those for athletics, baseball, swimming, squash and volleyball.”

Garcia said it is mandatory for an NSA to be sanctioned by the POC and the International Federation. “Take the case of swimming,” he said. “We were taken to court by a group that claims to represent the country in international competitions because it was not granted a travel tax exemption. The implementing rules and regulations of travel tax exemption in relation to sports require that the delegation or team must be recognized by the POC. Since the group isn’t recognized by the POC or the International Federation and isn’t an NSA, it could not be given travel tax exemption under the law. Filing a case against the PSC won’t solve the problem.”

Garcia said before the end of the year, all NSAs should have straightened out their books of accounts and legal compliance. “We won’t wait until President Aquino’s term expires in 2016,” he said. “We want to clean house before this year ends. It’s for the good of the NSAs because as long as their books are not in order, they won’t be able to get any funding from the PSC.”

Garcia also said the PSC and POC are encouraging NSAs to hire foreign coaches. “We’re learning that overseas exposure is just one of the solutions,” he said. “If you send one or two or three athletes for training abroad, you limit what your pool can learn. If we bring in a foreign coach, he’ll be able to teach everyone in the pool so that the exercise is quite cost-efficient.”

 At the moment, Garcia said the PSC is paying for 15 to 18 foreign coaches deployed in sports like gymnastics, wushu, taekwondo, shooting, judo, karate and bowling. “We’re looking to recruit about 10 more foreign coaches,” he said. “Sports like golf, boxing, swimming, athletics and muay could use a foreign coach. We could engage a foreign coach to come over for three to four months, train the national pool of his sport and get the elite athletes ready for international competitions. He could do periodic visits to check on how our athletes are doing and we could send videos to where he is based so the monitoring is continuous. I remember years ago in golf, an Australian pro Bob Stanton would come over to train our team, spend a few weeks over at Luisita, assess our players, lay out a program and periodically check on our progress. We performed exceptionally well during that time with stars like Cassius Casas.”